Provo Craft keeps pace with trends

The craft and hobby industry is huge, but it's slippery: always changing as consumers' interests and tastes evolve every year, or every season. A company that's on top of the world one year can disappear the next.

That's what makes the continuing success of Spanish Fork-based Provo Craft & Novelty so remarkable: Since its start as a retail craft store in 1963, the company has become a major manufacturer and wholesaler of craft and hobby products, with a dozen retail stores and worldwide sales.

Provo Craft has stayed in the hobby game by evolving even faster than the tastes of its customers.

When Robert Workman, now chief executive creative officer, began working at his father's store decades ago, he fell in love with the business and later bought it from his parents. Workman led Provo Craft as it grew into a multimillion-dollar business that for the past two decades has never had an unprofitable year.

About 12 years ago, the company's executives decided to undertake the risky venture of going into the manufacturing business. But they moved ahead, hiring new employees and forging relationships with overseas partners. The move had a huge positive impact on profit margins.

In 2005, chief executive officer James Thornton joined the company. During his tenure, Provo Craft has rolled out several retailer training plans and introduced the Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter, which spurred the firm in 2006 to its highest sales year in company history.