KidKraft Builds Team to Drive Growth

February 11, 2016  by in Executive Changes, Industry   

Lawrence Writer has been named CFO, and George Benz has joined the company has senior vice president of marketing and e-commerce. Both will be based in the company’s headquarters in Dallas. Martijn de Bruijn will join the company’s European team in Holland next month as European commercial director.

"We are fortunate to have this incredible depth and breadth of talent join our already very strong executive team," said Steven Lampert, KidKraft's CEO. "Given our ambitious growth objectives, I am very excited about these new executives' abilities to further scale our business globally and continue to deliver best in class KidKraft branded products to our retail partners and loyal consumers around the world." 

KidKraft’s growth strategy calls for building its global management infrastructure and to grow through acquisitions.

Writer is responsible for the finance, legal and information technology functions for the company and oversees the company’s growth with an emphasis on international expansion and acquisition. Prior to joining the company, Writer was COO and CFO for Hillerich & Bradsby Co., the parent company of the Louisville Slugger brand. Prior to Hillerich & Bradsby, he held roles with AlixPartners, The Carlyle Group and Goldman Sachs & Co. 

Investing to build the KidKraft brand and leveraging digital marketing are key steps in the company’s strategy.

"This is an exciting time for KidKraft," said Charmaine Lampert, KidKraft president and chief creative officer. “We are so happy to bring on this new talent to help us accelerate our brand's growth." 

Benz oversees global marketing and digital consumer engagement. A veteran of the toy industry, Benz most recently was with Mattel where he spent 15 years in product development, brand management, digital marketing and e-commerce leadership roles for a number of brands, including Fisher-Price, DC Entertainment, Hot Wheels and Matchbox. Benz also led e-commerce and omni-channel marketing initiatives for Petsmart.

KidKraft has focused on its international expansion over the last several years and plans to continue the growth with additional key account partnerships.  

de Bruijn will lead the company's international sales efforts in Europe. He comes to KidKraft most recently from Red Bull where he was sales director, and prior to that from Procter & Gamble Europe, where he held key account sales roles across several brands.