My Twinn moves into new Chatham facility

Christmas has been saved for countless little girls wanting a doll that looks just like them.

My Twinn, the company that makes customized dolls to resemble real children, has moved to a new facility in Chatham North Industrial Park and is ready for the holiday ordering season.

“We love to make little girls smile and thanks to everyone here, we’ll be able to do that,” Craig Currie, general manager, said in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday morning.

My Twinn was previously located at the eToys facility at Blairs as a division of The Parent Company, which filed for bankruptcy protection last December.

When an auction for the assets of the company was held in February, TPC Acquisitions LLC from Rahway, N.J., purchased My Twinn for more than $2 million.

The company found new 52,000-square-foot quarters in the Chatham North Park since the Blairs building was “about 10 times too large,” according to Melvin Austin, warehouse manager.

All the current staff was employed in the former facility.

“We shipped through mid-January, and there were only about six weeks when we were not able to ship dolls while we were trying to get into the new building,” Austin said. “Most of the layoffs were less than two weeks, and mine was only for one day.”

He said keeping the former employees was one of the main goals of keeping the business in Chatham.

Fourteen people are on the staff now, but that number will ramp up to 50 as the holiday season approaches.

Inside the building, workers were involved in different stages of making little girls’ dreams come true.

Although the vinyl doll heads are made in China, the Chatham workers add the eyelashes, eyes, wigs and details, such as dimples and freckles, which make the doll look like the photo of the child submitted with the order.

The doll is then attached to a body, dressed in one of five “meet” outfits that the customer has selected. Matching outfits can also be ordered in the size of the little girl who is to receive the doll.

“We are a direct-to-consumer business (Internet and catalog sales),” Austin said. “Our business here handles customer service, order control, assembly, packaging and a doll hospital.”

He explained that customers can buy a service where they can send the doll back for repairs and wig restyling and then when the girl outgrows playing with the doll, they will provide an “heirloom restoration” service for the doll to be preserved.

“During peak times, the hospital can handle 200 dolls a day,” Austin said. “We have also made 1,200 new dolls for the rush orders we handle here.”

Coy Harville, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, called the move to the new facility “an exciting time in Pittsylvania County, Chatham and the board of supervisors.”

“It was all a joint effort, and everybody wins,” he said. “This (move) speaks volumes for Pittsylvania County — the quality of the work force is great.”

For more information on My Twinn dolls, go to http://www.mytwinn.com.