Gen Cap Sells Hobby Lobby

Gen Cap America has sold Hobby Lobby International Inc. to Family Time Hobbies LLC, a holding company controlled by Nashville-based entrepreneur Mark Cleveland. No financial terms were disclosed. Hobby Lobby is a Brentwood, Tenn.-based distributor and retailer of model airplanes, helicopters, boats and accessories. 

PRESS RELEASE

Hobby Lobby International, Inc. announced today the company was acquired by Family Time Hobbies, LLC, a holding company controlled by Nashville area entrepreneur Mark A. Cleveland.

Hobby Lobby International is a designer and distributor of top-quality “hobbyist grade” products (which is to say they create and service serious performance-toys designed for competition and great fun). The company operates a retail store visible from Interstate 65 at the Old Hickory exit. The company connects with over 250,000 unique visitors on http://www.hobby-lobby.com every month with several hundred thousand catalogs in print. Race cars, classic motor boats and competition sailboats are some of a wide variety of miniature scale and giant-size models that leverage sophisticated radio controls and interactive video technologies that make it so easy to guide an aircraft from takeoff to landing. Originally serving the most discriminating modelers, the market has expanded because the cost of hobby class toys is falling rapidly and because today, most models come — out of the box — ready to fly. Based in Brentwood, Tennessee, the 43-year-old company is recognized as the third largest hobby aircraft company in North America.

“This company has earned a national reputation for excellence and the level of expertise at Hobby Lobby is simply astounding,” said Mark A. Cleveland, company CEO. “This is the company that was first to focus on developing powerful electric motors that are quickly replacing messy, gas-burning glow engines that most of us remember from our youth — with a super-easy-to-fly aircraft that is lean, clean and green! It’s all about customer service and we are proud to sell quality hobby products that get us all outside.”

Radio Control cars and aircraft are not as expensive as people think and they are easier to fly today than ever before. The flight research and development team at Hobby Lobby International has designed the world-famous TELEMASTER with tens of thousands sold over three decades and the new Pilot-1 Aerodrome family of products, featuring classic aircraft designs and delivering a great flight experience. The company has extensive partnerships with leading makers of the best helicopters, gliders and sailplanes, scale model supplies and accessories with one of the largest inventories of parts in the nation. Shipping same-day to any address in America, Hobby Lobby International is the exclusive U.S. distributor for Graupner, a leading manufacturer of hobby products with a reputation for quality German engineering.

“Our customers are having fun with the whole family,” says Cleveland, who is himself a novice RC pilot. “The skills our kids develop with video games translate directly to radio control where the air combat and race experience is so much better — because it’s real.”

For more information, visit http://www.hobby-lobby.com and http://www.bargainhanger.com and SHARE THE FUN