When Sharon Price John took over as CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop in 2013, the brand was beloved but the business was broken. Stores were unprofitable, overhead was out of line, and inventory piled up.
“My first priority was not about reshaping the brand’s future. My first priority was a return to profitability,” John said. “The immediate actions in a turnaround situation are two-pronged: stop doing stupid stuff, followed by start doing smart stuff.”
Once profitability returned, she set her focus on the brand itself. “Build-A-Bear is a feeling, right? Build-A-Bear means memories, family, hugs, hearts, warmth,” she said.
That reframing allowed her to position Build-A-Bear as more than a mall retailer, “pivoting the company from a retailer that accidentally built a brand to a branded intellectual property company that happens to have vertical retail as one of its revenue streams,” John explained.
One early symbolic step came in 2013, when she pushed to put the Build-A-Bear logo on every bear’s paw — a simple but powerful move that reinforced the brand’s identity beyond its stores.
The company has since expanded into ecommerce, licensing, entertainment, and international markets. Adults now make up a significant portion of sales, with John pointing to initiatives like the Bear Cave microsite. “We used and built out the website to overindex with collectors and adults and gift givers, and allowed the stores to be still that experience base where we overindex with our core consumer of kids,” she said.
After guiding Build-A-Bear through the retail apocalypse, Brexit, and Covid-19, John takes pride in its resilience. “We’re very careful to not overstep the trust that we built all these years, and we hope that we can be of service in bigger ways,” she said. “At the end of the day, everybody needs a teddy bear hug.” —Audrey Kemp
