Minneapolis-based Princess Soft Toys, announced it met with several legislators in Washington regarding toy safety and compliance and the effect on small businesses. Princess Soft Toys, along with additional members of the Toy Industry Association (TIA), convened in Washington for the third annual “Fly-In” to establish and strengthen relationships with elected officials, as well as deliver messages on relevant policy issues that impact the toy industry.
Princess Soft Toys’ CEO Sandy Calkins and safety compliance officer Sarah O’Bannon met in Washington to lobby on behalf of thee company along with 30 other participating members of the TIA. Members of the TIA also in attendance for the event included the chairman and COO of Hasbro Inc. as well as the international president of Mattel Inc., and the president of LEGO Systems Inc.
Princess Soft Toys is a family-owned business with a reputation of more than 45 years of designing items in strict adherence to all federal, state, and voluntary safety requirements.
Princess Soft Toys and the Toy Industry Association met with Secretary of Commerce Locke and several members of Congress to discuss the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), enabling the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to have more flexibility in determining toy safety laws, as well as ways to increase toy exports and improve global trade. Calkins stated, “This was an incredible opportunity for business owners to have their voices heard by the government officials whose recent toy safety laws have had a detrimental effect on the economy and small businesses in general. Our toys have always been safe. We have never had a recall or toy safety issue in the more than 45 years we’ve been in business, so the new toy safety laws are not resulting in safer toys at all–the toys have simply become much more expensive to produce and toy safety labs are the only groups profiting from the new laws.”
