About Party City

Company Info Mission Statement Party Principles History

Company info

In 1986, Party City opened our first one-stop party supply store in East Hanover, New Jersey, created to take the hassle out of party planning. Today, we are the worlds largest party supply retailer, with over 500 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico.

In December of 2005, Party City became a division of Amscan Holdings. Amscan designs, manufactures and distributes party goods, and maintains one of the largest and most varied product offerings in the industry. We offer a generous salary, great working environment, and some of the most incredible advancement opportunities in retail. Party City also offers a comprehensive benefit package including medical, vision and dental insurance, paid time off, tuition assistance, 401K, Associate discount and much more!

Mission Statement

Party City is committed to being the best at helping our customers celebrate every occasion by offering an unrivalled selection of merchandise, competitive pricing and a helpful and knowledgeable staff. Our reliable, time-tested knowledge of party-perfect trends, and superior customer service makes throwing a successful event - large or small - easy, so you can make it fun.

Party Principles

Every time a customer shops at Party City:

We will greet each Customer warmly and enthusiastically.
We will ensure the best prices.
We will master the fundamentals of party planning, knowing the features of our products, and continually strive to be a "Party Pro."
We will make the broadest and widest selection of products available.
We will create a positive shopping experience in an inspiring store environment.
We will make it our job to help each Customers throw a successful event.
We will build a reliable and dependable relationship with each Customer.
We will provide a fun and exciting shopping experience that makes our Customers want to shop and party with us again.

History

It all started for Party City over 20 years ago with a single store in East Hanover, NJ. Today, we are the largest Party Retailer in the world and have over 500 corporate and franchise stores from Hawaii to Puerto Rico. Our history has been fast paced and sometimes turbulent, but we have never lost focus on our desire to be the biggest and best in the industry.

Over the last 20 years, Party City has embraced its heritage as the Discount Party Superstore and focused its efforts on offering the broadest assortment of product and the best values in the industry.

The Party City concept was founded by Steve Mandell in 1986 as a one-stop party supply shop that would take the hassle out of party planning. The first year the store was opened, they had the idea to sell Halloween costumes and products. It was so wildly successful, that the following year, Steve negotiated with the landlord to use his warehouse space at the back of the building to house Halloween and developed the name Halloween Costume Warehouse, because it was literally Halloween costumes housed in the warehouse! This extra 2000 square feet dedicated to Halloween would prove to be one of the cornerstones of Party City's success over 20 years later.

The original Party City model was a franchise store concept which allowed the company to grow the store base more rapidly. The first Party City franchise store was opened in Hazlet, NJ in 1989 owned by Morey Shames. Ellen and Kamil Samra and Phil Nasuti were two of the earliest franchise owners and have been with Party City for over 20 years. Also in 1989, our Randolph, NJ store opened and was the home of our first Corporate office.

In 1992, Party City ventured outside the Northeast and opened stores in Sandy Springs, Georgia and Memphis, Tennessee. Quickly we became a nation-wide company with stores in California, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico.

The franchise and corporate store count grew rapidly throughout the 1990's. In 1996, the company went public on the NASDAQ under the symbol PCTY. It's annual revenue then was $48.6M. From 1996 to 1999, Party City opened almost 200 corporate stores. This expansion lead to a financial crunch in 1999 and as a result, the company was delisted from the NASDAQ. As a result, it entered a period of transition that lasted nearly 3 years.

In 2001, Party City was back on track and relisted on the NASDAQ as a public company. Between 2000 and 2004, we opened almost 50 new corporate stores largely on the West Coast. Also on the West Coast, we acquired Paper Warehouse in Seattle and converted them to 14 Party City stores. This is a great market for us.

The Party Supermarket group also joined the Party City family. Today they are our second largest franchise group with stores in Florida and Pennsylvania.

With acquisitions, partnerships and aggressive store openings, Party City hit the One Billion mark in sales in 2004!!

Halloween has always been one of Party City's largest businesses. To protect our market share and grow our business, we entered in to the temporary Halloween store market in 2005. Our first 10 Halloween Costume Warehouse stores were located in California, Colorado, and Michigan. A very experienced Party City team sucessfully operated these stores. We continue to believe this market is an important one for us to be a part of.

Also in 2005, our Board of Directors decided to sell the company. While this decision could have lead us in many directions, we joined up with great partners who understand and appreciate our business. Amscan Holdings was our largest vendor and we, their largest customer. It was a perfect match! The company has grown in the year since we were acquired.

In 2006 we moved our corporate offices in Rockaway, New Jersey, just down the street from our old location, not far from where it all started. In the last year, we had great sales and ebitda performance, dramatically improved our assortments, solidified our Discount Party Super Store positioning, enhanced our store presentations and focused on our Customers. With over 4500 associates in the field and our corporate office; plus the 4000 temporary associates at Halloween, Party City is committed to providing Customers everything they need to plan the perfect party, while having an exceptional shopping experience.

With the acquisition of Party America in late 2006, we now have the number one and number two companies in the party industry and are well positioned to continue to dominate this business by blending the best of two superb companies. With the support of our parent company, our partners at Amscan, our over 750 stores and almost 300 corporate employees, we are the biggest and best in this business and are excited to continue to serve our Customers and grow our company.