Posted October 12, 2017

 

UXBRIDGE, England – Coats, one of the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market, has appointed Stephanie Leichtweis as president, North America Crafts.

 

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.  

 

Leichtweis has more than two decades of sales, marketing and general management experience across both B2C and B2B. She joins from Fibre-Craft LLC, where she has been CEO since 2015. Based near Chicago, it provides creative crafts based activities in the US and internationally.

 

“Stephanie 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,” said Rajiv Sharma, group chief executive, Coats. “She is ideally placed to lead our North America Crafts business as we pursue profitable sales growth.”

 

The primary focus for the role will be to accelerate profitable sales growth through enhanced consumer marketing, effective use of digital and innovation. Leichtweis will also help support the wider company objective of increasing its culture of innovation by joining the recently launched Coats Global Innovation Forum. 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.

 

Stephanie reports to Sharma and is based in the North America Crafts head office in Charlotte, N.C.

 

Prior to joining Fibre-Craft, Leichtweis was vice president of sales and marketing at Jarden Branded Consumables. 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 vice president of marketing and new product development at Blyth HomeScents, a home fragrance and décor accessories products company.

 

Leichtweis has a B.A. in liberal arts from Colgate University in New York.

 

Leichtweis joined the company on October 2 and replaces Michael Schofer, who has moved to the role of chief supply chain officer.

 

Source: Coats

Coats appoints president of N. America Crafts