Catch up on this week’s industry chatter with these click-worthy links:
- Ahni & Zoe, the Minnesota-based scrapbooking brand that closed its doors earlier this year, has re-launched under new ownership. The company, formerly Creative Memories, supported 70,000 consultants worldwide before undergoing two bankruptcies within five years. Caleb Hayhoe, Chairman of Flowerdale Group Ltd., now owns the Creative Memories and Ahni & Zoe brands, collectively reopened as CM Group Holdings Inc.
- With a starter kit that includes seeds, compost and disposable gloves, Dallas-based Gardenuity is looking to turn a hobby into a social selling business. The young company is using a network of associates to train nongardeners in cultivating their own food. In addition to gardening tools; seeds; plants and other lifestyle products, Gardenuity has produced an app that enables associates to create a personalized garden plan for each customer.
- Digital marketing company iMakeNews Inc. (IMN) announced that it will host an upcoming Twitter Q&A on the changing face of direct selling. Hosted by Michelle Larter, IMN Worldwide Director of Direct Selling and winner of the 2013 DSA Ethos Award for Partnership, the chat will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
- PartyLite is helping its historic hometown of Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrate Thanksgiving during the America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Celebration Parade. The candle company is sponsoring a special float honoring the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as well as the Plymouth 400 Illuminate mobile app, which allows people in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to engage with participants in sister city, Plymouth, England.
- An Inc. slideshow featured the “new guard of direct selling,” an up-and-coming group of entrepreneurs with a modern take on the classic model.