If your holiday feast was hosted in the Midwest this year, chances are that at least one dish was served in the distinctive maplewood weaves of a Longaberger basket. In its heyday, circa 2000, the Ohio-based basket manufacturer recorded $1 billion in sales and employed more than 8,200 people—not counting the 45,000 independent distributors attributed to its referral-marketing model. But unfortunately, due to economic decline, the 45-year-old Longaberger Company had ceased operations by 2018.
Now, the Longaberger brand has not one but two comeback stories to tell. Recently, Columbus Business First reported that Longaberer designs would be put back into production, thanks to a licensing agreement inked between basket weavers Dresden & Co. and consumer products conglomerate Xcel Brands, Inc. and Hilco Global, which have acquired the company's intellectual property rights.
“Thousands who dearly love what Longaberger stands for have reached out to us in hopes that we can reclaim Longaberger,” Tami Longaberger, daughter of company founder Dave Longaberger, said in a statement released in conjunction with the news. “Our shared values—integrity, craftsmanship, and opportunity for all—will move us forward.”
What’s more, just weeks before this new deal was signed, the Longaberger Company was making headlines for another reason. The current owners of the company’s former Newark, Ohio–based headquarters—a seven-story, 180,000-square-foot complex modeled after the manufacturer’s signature Medium Market Basket—announced plans to reopen the iconic Longaberger Basket Building as a luxury hotel in 2020.
While the thought of a basket-shaped building might not be everyone’s idea of luxury, the company’s founder—who spearheaded the building’s design—was undeniably a man of conspicuous taste. The $30 million project, which was completed in 1997, was executed by Seattle-based architecture firm NBBJ and Korda/Nemeth Engineering. It took 18 months to construct the building’s wooden handles, each of which weighs about 75 tons, and to develop a heating system that would prevent the handles from acquiring ice in the winter—a potential structural threat to the building’s glass roof.
Inside the space, currently being renovated by Cleveland’s Sandvick Architects, a marble entryway leads into the 30,000-square-foot atrium drenched in natural light. Trim made out of cherrywood, a material sourced from a nearby Longaberger-owned golf course, is pristinely installed throughout the complex. And special nooks, like the executive suites, are decorated with a basket-weave wall treatment. The style is, conveniently, making a comeback.
