Industry News

Dream World now under new ownership

Annie and Scot Lindsay have recently announced that the ownership of Dream World Sew Steady Portable Tables and Cabinet Inserts and Insets has been transferred from the Lindsays to Jerry and Melinda Tippets.

The Tippets will manufacture, market and ship Sew Steady Portable Tables and Cabinet Inserts/Insets under their new company name “Dream World Northwest.” The Lindsays will continue to own and supply Bendable Bright Lights under their new company name “Bendable Bright Lights, Inc.”

Reflecting on their past, the sewing industry is actually what brought the Tippets together. Jerry said he was hired as a stock clerk at Home Fabrics in Medford, OR, in 1970, and was later promoted to assistant manager. Melinda (Mendy) was a sales associate at the store and an avid seamstresss. The couple married in 1973 and moved north to Roseburg, OR, to open a fabric store there. Over the next 12 years the Home Fabrics chain, headquartered in Redding, CA, grew from three stores to 14 stores.

Jerry said, “I was active in opening five of the stores. In 1981, with business conditions waning, I opened a sewing machine division for the company and sold Pfaff and Baby Lock machines in six of the stores. Mendy left the fabric business in 1974 to pursue a career in banking. She attained the position of senior vice president with a local bank and then left to be one of four founding members of Century Bank of Eugene, OR, in 2003.”

After Jerry left Home Fabrics he spent a few years in pharmaceutical sales and then joined a design and manufacturing company, King Retail Solutions.

“I left King in June to pursue owning my own business,” Jerry stated. “Mendy and I have long wanted a family business to pass on to our children and our acqusition with Dream World is the first step in that process. Our son Brandon and daughter-in-law Melissa have joined Dream World to focus on production and customer service and our daughter Stacy will manage a company in Eugene, OR, that we are in the final stages of purchasing.”

The Tippets said they are especially excited with their new business, Dream World Northwest. They are attracted to the quality of the product and the extensive library of templates that allow the tables and inserts to be fit to nearly every sewing machine and serger in existance.

“Scot and Annie Lindsay created a great company and our hats are off to them,” said Jerry. “We see great growth potential with the product line. Mendy and I are especially pleased to be back in the sewing business working with hobbyists again.”

The Lindsays and the Tippets have been working together for over a month to assure that their customers continue to receive quality products and services during this transition and into the future.

Jerry said, “We believe that our family’s collective experience in retailing, manufacturing, product design, and banking will give us what it takes to be successful.”

You can contact Dream World Northwest at P.O. Box 89, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805; phone 1-800-837-3261; e-mail jerryt@dreamworld-inc.com or dream@dreamworld-inc.com.

Reprinted from SQE Professional, January 2010