Lionel, LLC
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| Private | |
| Industry |
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| Predecessor |
Lionel Trains, Inc. Lionel Corporation |
| Founded | Chesterfield Township, Michigan, United States (1995) |
| Headquarters | Concord, North Carolina, United States |
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Key people
|
Howard Hitchcock, President |
| Products | Model trains |
| Revenue | US$62 million (2006) |
| Owner |
|
| Website | lionel |
Lionel Trains, Inc.
Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is based in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerate General Mills and subsequent purchase in 1986 by businessman Richard P. Kughn forming Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1986. The Martin Davis Investment Group (Wellspring) bought Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1995 and renamed it Lionel LLC.
According to its reorganization papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on May 21, 2007, about 95% of the company's sales come from O gauge trains. The plan estimated that about US$70 million worth of O gauge trains are sold each year, and that Lionel accounts for about 60% of that market, making it the largest manufacturer of O gauge trains.
1 - Joshua Lionel Cowen 1900 - 1945
2 - Lawrence Cowen 1945 - 1959
3 - Roy Cohn (Chairman) 1959 - 1963
4 - John Medaris 1959 - 1967
5 - Ronald Saypol 1968 - 1995
1 - General Mills 1968 - 1986
2 - Richard P. Kughn (CEO) 1986 - 1995
3 - Art Peisner (President) 1986 - 1995
4 - Martin Davis Investment Group 1995 - 2000
5 - Gary Moreau 1995 - 1999
6 - Richard Maddox 1999 - 2001
7 - Bill Bracy 2001 - 2004
8 - Jerry Calabrese 2004 - 2014
9 - Howard Hitchcock 2014–Present
1 - Pre-War Era: 1900 - 1941
2 - World War 2 Era: 1941 - 1945 (only train produced was the Lionel Wartime Freight Train made from cardstock, also known as the "paper train").
3 - Post-War Era: 1945 - 1969
4 - Modern Era: 1969 - 2006
5 - Future Era: 2006–Present
Lionel Corporation sold the tooling for its then-current product line and licensed the Lionel name to General Mills in 1969, who then operated Lionel as a division of its subsidiary Model Products Corporation or MPC beginning in 1970. General Mills did not buy the company, however. The Lionel Corporation became a holding company and invested in a number of ventures, including what would eventually become an East Coast chain of toy stores known as "Lionel Leisure World".
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Wikipedia