area in birmingham england see chad valley birmingham . chad valley type subsidiary industry retail founded early 19th century headquarters birmingham formerly milton keynes buckinghamshire parent home retail group website home retail group chad valley current logo chad valley is a long established brand of toys in the united kingdom owned by home retail group . history edit a tin plate chad valley toy truck displaying their royal warrant . the company has its roots in a printing business established by anthony bunn johnson in birmingham in the early 19th century . under the management of his son joseph and grandson alfred the company moved to the suburb of harborne in the valley of a stream called the chad giving its name to the chad valley district from which the company name is derived . chad valley made a decision to expand their range to soft toys before wwi . they mass produced their new teddy bears in harborne 1 in 1938 the company received a royal warrant as toymakers to h.m. the queen . 2 when princess elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952 the warrant was changed to read toymakers to h.m. queen elizabeth the queen mother . 1 the company moved away from manufacturing toys in the second world war . instead they produced goods to help the war effort such as wooden instrument cases cases for the barrels of anti aircraft guns hospital beds and electrical coils and starters . 2 in 1945 the company resumed toy production . tin plate toys were produced for the first time although manufacture was outsourced to metal box ltd a company with the skills and machinery needed to produce printed toys . this new tin plate range was such a success that in 1946 the company moved production in house . they purchased the birmingham metalworking company as cartwright ltd to cut and fold metal winfield ltd to produce clockwork mechanisms and barronia metals ltd and true to type products ltd to produce precision engineering equipment . 3 the radio broadcaster kenneth horne was chairman and managing director of the company from 1956 to 1958 . 4 the company was one of the uk s leading toymakers for most of the 20th century by 1960 it was operating seven factories and employing over 1 000 people . in the 1970s however it closed several factories and cuts were made in staffing and production 1975 saw only two factories remaining . the company was taken over by palitoy in 1978 . 2 the brand name was bought by woolworths in 1988 and remained in use until that company s closure due to insolvency . home retail group the parent company of retailers homebase and argos purchased the brand for 5 million on 20 january 2009 . 5 the chad valley brand is now available exclusively at argos . in march 2016 sainsbury s bought home retail group and chad valley became a brand of sainsbury s. references edit a b toys for toffs the early history of chad valley . retrieved 2015 02 04 . a b c chad valley co . grace s guide . retrieved 12 february 2015 . the history of chad valley . toy price guide . retrieved 13 february 2015 . johnston barry 2006 . round mr horne the life of kenneth horne . aurum press . p. 180 . isbn 1 84513 123 1 home retail signs deal to buys chad valley toy brand for gbp5m . wall street journal . 2009 01 20 . archived from the original on 21 january 2009 . retrieved 2009 01 20 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to category chad valley toys . chad valley business site takes you to the home retail group website v t e teddy bears bear manufacturers build a bear workshop chad valley j. k. farnell gund ideal toy company margarete steiff gmbh merrythought teddy atelier stursberg teddy hermann ty inc vermont teddy bear company types of bear ag bear beanie babies boyds bears care bears coffee bean bears forever friends freddy teddy gund snuffles holiday beanie babies me to you bears werebears teddy bear museums teddy bear museum dorset teddy bear museum teddy bear museum of naples famous teddies aloysius archibald ormsby gore benjamin bear berlino duffy the disney bear fozzie bear freddy fazbear grizzly teddy lotso microsoft bear misha nassur nev paddington bear pooky pudsey bear rilakkuma roosevelt rupert bear rupert family guy smokey sooty superted teddy mr. bean teddy ruxpin uszatek mr whoppit winnie the pooh yogi bear film and television the adventures of teddy ruxpin bear behaving badly becky and barnaby bear c bear and jamal colargol disney s adventures of the gummi bears issi noho old bear stories paddington the secret world of benjamin bear superted ted ted 2 the teddy bear master teddy edward the yogi bear show boonie bears books corduroy little bear old bear and friends teddy dressing the berenstain bears uppo nalle winkie winnie the pooh music let me be your teddy bear psycho teddy teddy bears picnic the teddy bear song video games build a bear workshop hubert the teddy bear winter games naughty bear op ration teddy bear related topics the bear club peter bull gummy bears round and round the garden sgul teddy bear hospital richard steiff sudanese blasphemy case teddybear airdrop minsk 2012 teddy bear parachuting teddy bear review teddy bear toss teddy grahams theodore roosevelt retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title chad valley toy brand & oldid 738205520 categories 1860 introductionscompanies based in birmingham west midlandstoy brandstoy companies of the united kingdomf . w. woolworth companyteddy bear manufacturersbritish royal warrant holdershidden categories commons category without a link on wikidatause dmy dates from july 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage 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