subsidiary industry merchandising predecessor character merchandising division founded 1929 1 headquarters burbank california 1 united states area served worldwide products textiles apparel and luxury goods 1 services licensing parent disney consumer products and interactive media the walt disney company divisions licensing 1 subsidiaries disney store website disneyconsumerproducts.com disney consumer products dcp is a subsidiary and business segment of the walt disney company that engages in merchandising of the disney brand and disney properties . contents 1 background 2 history 2.1 franchise focus 3 franchises 3.1 disney bunnies 3.2 disney dragonkind 4 disney consumer products and interactive media 5 references 6 external links background edit dcp s origins trace back to 1929 when walt disney licensed the image of mickey mouse for use on a children s writing tablet . chwdc 1 on december 16 of that year walt disney productions formed the walt disney enterprises wde division to handle merchandising . chwdc 2 the mickey mouse doll production by charlotte clark started shortly after in january 1930 . chwdc 3 the wde division also hired george borgfeldt & company of new york as a licensing agent to make mickey and minnie mouse toys . chwdc 4 borgfeldt & company in turn set to work developing other products granting the first license to walkburger tanner and company of st. gall switzerland for mickey and minnie mouse handkerchiefs . chwdc 5 that summer of 1930 disney expanded wde to england granting a general license to william banks levy for mickey and minnie mouse character merchandise . chwdc 6 in 1932 disney closed a merchandising contract with herman kay kamen for sole representation . chwdc 7 early on wde began to show results . the company s merchandising made the silly symphony film three little pigs 1933 the company s first profit making animated feature . chwdc 8 in 1934 disney licensing expanded to hand crank toy projectors chwdc 9 diamond studded mickey mouse pins mickey mouse toffee in england chwdc 10 and a lionel wind up train toy chwdc 11 while a patent is received for ingersoll waterbury clock company s mickey mouse watch . chwdc 12 yet more companies licensed the mickey mouse image . general foods did so for one year and made 1.5 million on the post toasties cereal box . mickey was the first licensed character on such a product . chwdc 13 clashes with other companies weren t unavoidable though . disney filed suit on july 31 against the united biscuit company of america sawyer biscuit company and the chicago carton company for unauthorized use of disney characters for animal crackers which lasted for four months and ended in disney s favor . chwdc 14 disney signed on july 19 1938 with courvoisier galleries making courvoisier disney s original art marketing representative . in december walt disney enterprises was renamed walt disney productions . chwdc 15 in october 1948 disney and kay kamen extend the merchandising contract but only for the americas . chwdc 16 in 1949 the character merchandising division is formed with in disney . chwdc 17 also that year on october 28 kay kamen disney s licensing representative died in an air france plane crash over the azores . chwdc 18 with roy disney s split off the merchandising division from disney production jimmy johnson became head of the merchandising division s publication department in 1950 and took on managing business affairs for the walt disney music company . 2 disney had a food division with product from bread to soft drinks which was mostly discontinued due to its contract with abc to produce tv shows and the need to not be in competition with potential advertisers . 3 after disney purchased the rights for winnie the pooh to make a 1966 animated short film the company conceded to a broad licensing agreement with sears roebuck & co. . 4 stephen slesinger inc. s pati slesinger found merchandise that disney did not pay royalties on . the slesinger then attempt to get the a.a. milne trust to abrogate its contract . in 1983 disney paid stephen slesinger inc. and the milne estate to end the royalty issue and agreed to a new contract that lower slesinger inc. s royalty percentage . 5 in 1979 the intergovernmental philatelic corporation of new york was licensed by walt disney productions to make disney character stamps for several countries . chwdc 19 history edit dcp office buildings in glendale at disney s grand central creative campus disney consumer products was incorporated with the state of california in 1986 . 6 the first disney store opened in glendale california on march 28 1987 . chwdc 20 on october 12 disney agreed to a licensing contract with mattel for a disney character infant and preschool toy line . chwdc 21 dcp purchased childcraft education corp. maker of children s furniture and equipment retail stores and catalog sales from grolier inc. in april 1988 . nyt 1 in april 1990 the 50th store was opened in montclair california along with the first mickey s kitchen fast food restaurant . nyt 2 on november 11 1991 mattel and disney extended the 1987 agreement adding pinocchio bambi dumbo it s a small world and the autopia to the toy line . chwdc 22 in march 1992 disney stores closed the two mickey s kitchen as the restaurants were only breaking even while well received by the customers as the company wanted to focus on overseas expansions . 7 in 1994 dcp ended an exclusive licensing agreement with sears for winnie the pooh . three distinct product lines were created for pooh disney pooh based on the disney red shirted tan bear cartoon version ; 100 acre collection a more upscale line for department stores and the classic pooh line based on the original a.a. milne books ernest h. shephard illustrations . 4 dcp licensing peak in 1997 with 749 disney stores worldwide operating income of 893 million and 4 200 licensees for mostly winnie the pooh and mickey mouse product plus some top animated movies . nyt 3 disney s and mcdonald s ten year cross promotional agreement began on january 1 1997 . nyt 4 in may 1997 the vermont teddy bear co. filed a copyright infringement suit against disney over pooh grams being similar to its mail order bear gram trademark and logo . also disney enterprises inc. sold dcp operating subsidiary childcraft education corp. to u.s. office products co. lat 1 in march 1998 walt disney records and walt disney music publishing were transferred out of dcp to buena vista music group in the disney studio division . 8 by 1998 pooh outsold mickey mouse 316 million to 114 million through november of that year in just licensed toy sales . by replacing sears with 100 licensees including mattel hallmark timex tupperware and royal daulton dcp has since increased pooh product lines from 390 million to 3.3 billion . 4 franchise focus edit with mickey mouse and other characters on products every where and a general retail decline in 2000 dcp had registered operating income of only 386 million . nyt 3 in december 1999 andrew p. mooney became the head of dcp . he created the disney princess franchise in january 2000 . nyt 5 9 he also developed the disney couture fashion line walt disney signature furniture a princess inspired bridal gowns line and lines based on the pixar films toy story and cars . lat 2 mooney had dcp try an always fresh labeled women s nightshirts and t shirts line which attempt to be more mature but failed . he also reduced the number of licensees in half sold low sale stores and had staff actively pursuing licensing partners than waiting for proposals . for example mooney worked to have fred segal a high end retailers sell specialty products and opened a sales office near wal mart s headquarters in bentonville arkansas . in 2001 mooney lead a promotion of mickey mouse t shirts by getting them into the hands of celebrities which was a success . also disney publishing issued its first original comic book w.i.t.c.h. which was successful enough to be adapted into an animated series . nyt 3 consumer products also begin expanding licensing in the food category in the 2000s . dcp agreed to a licensing agreement with kellogg company for a kellogg s disney cereal line launched in february 2002 kellogg s disney mickey s magix kellogg s disney hunny bs and kellogg s disney pixar buzz blasts . 10 in may 2003 dcp and wells dairy launched a disney branded dairy line with a variety of new ice creams frozen novelties and yogurt products . 11 in may 2005 dcp licensed krogers the old yeller name to sell dog food . 12 the japanese stores were sold to oriental land company in 2002 lat 3 while most north american stores were sold and licensed in november 2004 to the children s place . lat 4 disney licensed motorola for cordless phones and two way handset radios in august 2002 . 13 for the first 3 quarters of 2004 disney consumer products made 388 million in operating income placing the year ahead of 2000 and 2003 . in may 2004 the disney cuties design a more anime style line was introduced with t shirts . mooney s major initiatives was to turn disney into a lifestyle brand by relying on the disney brand reputation instead of its characters to sell clothing and household goods with half the royalty percentage of the 10 % for disney characters . at fred segal in august the retailer was test selling snap watches with swappable faces and wristbands with disney characters with hipper urban designs . in spring 2005 dcp planned to start sell pants and jean jackets under the disney denim brand with a cartoon whimsical elements . nyt 3 on august 5 2004 the disney dream desk pc designed by frog design and manufactured by medion began being sold at compusa and disney online . dcp planned to release a camcorder and digital camera later in the year . 14 disney purchased the rights to the muppets and the bear in the big blue house franchises from the jim henson company on february 17 2004 . nyt 6 the two brands were placed under control of the muppets holding company llc then as a unit of disney consumer products . 15 in 2005 dcp has begun working with various indian retail outlets to establish disney corners within the outlets to sell licensed merchandise . 16 also that year mooney formed the disney fairies franchise which launched in the fall with fairy dust and the quest for the egg book . 9 17 in the early 2000s disneytoon studios dts joined dcp as their internal disney conglomerate video partner in developing the new disney franchises . while dcp eyed other potential franchises dts looked to the seven dwarfs for a male centric franchise to counterbalance the female centric fairies by 2005 . 18 in 2006 the muppets holding company was transferred from the disney consumer products unit to the walt disney studios with studio executives passing on oversight the unit was placed in the special events group . nyt 6 15 with disney princesses a success and disney fairies just under way in 2006 consumer products started looking into the next possible franchises with disney bunnies selected already . 19 dcp in may concluded a consumer products master licensing agreement for indochina including vietnam cambodia and laos with east media holdings inc. s emhi licensing inc. 20 on september 26 the disney jeans brand was launched in india under license to indus clothing who planned to open 30 disney jean stores by the end of 2007 . 21 in october dcp india franchised to ravi jaipuria corporation the rights for five years to set up 150 disney artist brand stores and wholesale under the