3599. Quack the duck

The First Years Inc. is a developer and marketer of products for infants and toddlers. The company groups its products into three broad categories: Feeding & Soothing, Play & Discover, and Care & Safety. Feeding & Soothing products include bottles, nipples, teethers, bibs, breast-feeding accessories, and a line of spill-proof bowls and cups. The Play & Discover line includes crib toys, hand-held toys, and large playthings. The Care & Safety product group consists of home safety devices such as door and cabinet latches, monitors, toilet-training accessories, and other health and hygiene products. The First Years sells its products worldwide both under its own brand and under the licensed names "Winnie the Pooh," "Disney Mickey," and "Sesame Street." Its customers are primarily major toy and mass-merchandising retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys "R" Us. Other outlets include department stores, grocery and drug store chains, and specialty shops.

The First Years Inc. was founded in 1949, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by Marshall Sidman and his wife Evelyn. Sidman, who was then in his mid-thirties, had served as a Navy ensign during World War II. After his discharge in 1945, he experimented with various careers--including piloting, baking, and selling clothing, tires, stationery, and reupholstering services. But Sidman was not content to sell someone else's products. He wanted a product of his own to promote, and ultimately, he found one--a diaper pin that a friend had developed. As Sidman approached local merchants with his diaper pins, however, he found that they were looking for full product lines rather than individual products. The Sidmans responded by adding baby items from other manufacturers to their product offering--and the company was born. The couple incorporated their business in 1952, as Kiddie Products, Inc.