Coats, the world\u2019s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market, has appointed Stephanie Leichtweis as President, North America Crafts.\u00a0 The business supplies foundation and fashion hand knitting yarns, quilting fabrics, thread, zippers and needlecraft items to consumers and retailers across the Americas and has market leading brands including Coats, Red Heart, FreeSpirit and Anchor.<\/p>\n
Stephanie has over two decades of sales, marketing and general management experience across both B2C and B2B.\u00a0 She joins from Fibre-Craft LLC, where she has been CEO since 2015.\u00a0 Based near Chicago, US, it provides creative crafts based activities in the US and internationally.<\/p>\n
Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, Coats, said: \u2018Stephanie has wide ranging experience in product development, innovation, brand management, sales and marketing strategy, as well as an established track record in running a business in the crafts sector.\u00a0 She is ideally placed to lead our North America Crafts business as we pursue profitable sales growth.\u2019<\/p>\n
The primary focus for the role will be to accelerate profitable sales growth through enhanced consumer marketing,\u00a0effective use of digital and innovation.\u00a0 Stephanie will also help support the wider company objective of increasing its culture of innovation by joining the recently launched Coats Global Innovation Forum.\u00a0 This is an internal group tasked with developing and delivering pioneering ideas in threads, yarns and textiles in order to meet the evolving needs of customers.<\/p>\n
Stephanie reports to Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, and is based in the North America Crafts head office in Charlotte, North Carolina, US.<\/p>\n
Prior to joining Fibre-Craft Stephanie was VP Sales and Marketing at Jarden Branded Consumables.\u00a0 She has also previously been Principle, Integrated Marketing and Product Development Consulting at ArrowPoint Marketing Consulting; Vice President of Innovation, NPD and R&D at The Sterno Group, the leading manufacturer and marketer of foodservice products; and VP Marketing and New Product Development at Blyth HomeScents, a home fragrance and d\u00e9cor accessories products company.\u00a0 Stephanie has a BA in Liberal Arts from Colgate University, New York.<\/p>\n
Stephanie joined on Monday 2 October and replaces Michael Schofer who has moved to the role of Chief Supply Chain Officer at Coats.<\/p>\n
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