Lifetime Brands buys a UK tableware company

Garden City-based Lifetime Brands Inc. has bought a British kitchenware maker, adding to a stable of companies that already includes Farberware, KitchenAid and Cuisinart.

Lifetime Brands said in a Sunday news announcement that, in addition to its acquisition of Creative Tops Ltd., it bought the company's Hong Kong-based subsidiary Creative Tops Far East Ltd. It did not say how much it paid for them.

Together the two companies had net revenues of $42.6 million in the most recent fiscal year. Shares of Lifetime Brands, trading on the Nasdaq as LCUT, were up $0.01 to $12.10 early Monday; its stock is down 19 percent in the past 12 months.

Lifetime chief executive Jeffrey Siegel said Creative Tops, of Colby, East Midlands, England, is "a highly regarded provider of private label and branded housewares products" that are sold in retail shops in Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia and the United States.

Creative Tops sells directly to the consumer at english-table.com. Its V&A line is based on designs from the archive at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Through Creative Tops, Lifetime Brands hopes to increase European, Asian and South African retail sales of its main tabletop brands Mikasa, Pfaltzgraff, Gorham, International Silver, Towle Silversmiths and Wallace.

Meanwhile the company hopes to sell more Creative Tops products in the United States and Canada through Lifetime Brands networks.

With about 1,000 employees, Lifetime had $19.1 million profit on $449.6 million revenue during the past 12 months.