Rubie's is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of Halloween and Carnival products, toys and accessories.
Rubies Masquerade - Worldwide
The company was founded in 1951 by Rubin and Tillie Beige, in Queens, New York, originally as the neighbourhood candy store, selling newspapers, comic books and novelty items. "Rubie" bought the run-down store with his army savings of $500 after returning from World War II. He originally intended the store to be a temporary means of supporting his family until something better came along. "Rubie" is remembered as saying "nothing in this
world is so permanent as a temporary solution"..
By the end of the decade he had renamed the shop "Rubie's Fun House". Rubie began to experiment with new ideas, introducing a line of novelty hats. As local drama teachers began patronising the Fun House, the stores reputation grew. With each year came new and strange requests ( the stranger the better!) - one Rubie strove to fulfil, adding new lines of merchandise. In the mid-50's came makeup, then moustaches, wigs, more hats, canes, parasols, gloves, ties, spats, belts... even rubber chickens!
Rubie's Masquerade UK, started in November 1996, as a new company based in Liverpool. Since then, we have grown into the largest UK supplier for costumes and accessories within the party industry.
We now employ over 50 people across the business with a further 8 Sales Agents who represent Rubie's to our many toy and party customers. We recently moved to a new dedicated sales office in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, with a spacious 3,000 sq ft showroom. Liverpool also saw expansion in 2006 with an additional 20,000 square feet of warehouse space, taking the total to 40,000.
We currently supply approximately 2500 retailers from the party and fancy dress industry, including key retailers such as Marks & Spencer's, Asda, Woolworth's, Toys R Us, Argos, Birthdays, Littlewoods, Tesco's, BHS and Hamleys, to name a few. Rubie's are proud of our position as market leaders across the globe. Our latest product designs and themed character costumes give delight to our customers year after year. Please contact our sales team here.
Chris Isitt, the MD of Rubies UK, developed a long term plan for the Australian operation. He identified that the UK market was very similar to ours in terms of year round demand for children's and adult costumes.
Chris spent 4 years researching the market, talking to prospective distributors and retailers to establish the best approach. He quickly determined that the Australian market was extremely receptive to a full service organization that could deliver a co-ordinated range of costumes, masks and accessories and supply them all under one roof.
It was also obvious that there was huge pent up demand for Adult costumes and accessories both in generic and Licensed formats.
As Rubies Masquerade enters its second year of operations we do so with confidence in our product and our ability to cater for the diverse needs of the Australian market.