Crayons have long been a beloved art supply for children and adults alike. With their bright colors, easy glide, and classic shape, crayons inspire creativity and imagination. Though there are many crayon manufacturers today, a few major brands have risen to the top as the largest crayon companies in the industry. In this article, we will look at some of the leading crayon producers, examining their history, reach, and product offerings to determine which is the largest. Key factors we will consider include annual revenue, market share, number of crayons produced, variety of crayon types, and geographic availability. By exploring the biggest players in the crayon world, we’ll discover which company takes the crown for crayon dominance.
Major Crayon Companies
Several prominent companies stand out as major crayon manufacturers on the global stage today. Here are some of the leading contenders vying for the top spot:
Crayola
Crayola, owned by Hallmark Cards, is one of the most iconic and recognizable crayon brands in the world. Founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith, the company changed its name to Crayola in 1958. Crayola offers a wide array of crayon products including their classic 8-count boxes, larger packs of 24, 48, 64, 96, and 120 crayons, and specialty lines. The brand is available in over 80 countries worldwide.
Cra-Z-Art
Operating since 1923, Cra-Z-Art is a large crayon producer based in Randolph, New Jersey. Their crayon products include Nickelodeon, Disney, and other licensed brands. The company manufactures a range of art supplies in addition to crayons. Cra-Z-Art crayons can be found in major retailers throughout North America.
Stadium Crayons
Stadium Crayons emerged in the 1990s as a specialty crayon-maker, focused on producing high-quality crayons. Their crayons are manufactured in the United States. Stadium touts their crayons as being odorless, longer-lasting, and providing true color quality. They offer classic crayon packs and innovative shaped crayon sets.
Sakura Crayons
Sakura is an arts and crafts company based in Japan that has been manufacturing crayons since 1960. Their crayon products are widely available across Asia. Sakura produces quality crayons in a spectrum of colors. Beyond crayons, they offer a broad array of art and office supplies.
Maped
The French brand Maped has manufactured crayons and other stationery products since 1947. Their crayons are known for vivid color and smooth application. Maped crayons and art supplies are marketed throughout Europe, South America, and other global regions. Their crayon offerings range from basic packs to educational kits.
BIC Kids
BIC is a stationery powerhouse best known for pens but also produces a popular line of children’s crayons. BIC Kids crayons are available in standard and jumbo sizes, as well as short, twistable configurations. As a large multinational corporation, BIC has the distribution capabilities to make their crayons accessible across North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
Dixon Ticonderoga
Founded in 1795, Dixon Ticonderoga is a prominent U.S. pencil and art supplies manufacturer that also makes crayons. Though crayons are not their primary offering, their Ticonderoga My First Crayons line provides stiff competition in the crayon market. These crayons are designed for small hands and feature bold colors.
| Company | Year Founded | Headquarters | Markets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crayola | 1885 | USA | Global |
| Cra-Z-Art | 1923 | USA | North America |
| Stadium Crayons | 1990s | USA | North America |
| Sakura Crayons | 1960 | Japan | Asia |
| Maped | 1947 | France | Europe, South America |
| BIC Kids | 1945 | France | Global |
| Dixon Ticonderoga | 1795 | USA | North America |
This table provides an overview of some of the major crayon producers, when they were founded, headquarters locations, and the geographic markets where their crayons are sold.
Factors in Evaluating Largest Crayon Company
Determining the largest crayon company involves analyzing several key factors:
Annual Revenue
The annual revenue of a crayon company provides insight into their financial size and market share. Larger annual revenue typically indicates greater production and sales volume across a company’s crayon product lines.
Unit Sales
Looking at total unit sales or the number of crayon boxes sold annually also reflects a company’s market strength. The leader in sheer crayon units sold points to consumer demand and top market share.
Production Output
A company’s annual production output of crayons indicates their manufacturing capabilities and scale. Companies able to produce billions of crayons per year have invested in the facilities and distribution necessary for high crayon output.
Product Range
The variety and breadth of a company’s crayon product range shows their segment diversity and innovation. Companies with wider assortments spanning standard packs to novelty offerings demonstrate their category dominance.
Retail Availability
Widespread retail availability in national and global markets is key for major crayon brands. Accessibility across diverse retailers, geographies, and channels indicates extensive distribution strength.
Brand Recognition
Strong brand recognition is both a driver and outcome of market leadership. Iconic, household-name brands achieve consumer loyalty and purchasing familiarity that reinforces their #1 status.
Weighing all of these factors provides a 360-degree view into the world’s top crayon companies. While many players hold pieces of the market, one brand typically emerges ahead of the pack.
The World’s Largest Crayon Company
After examining the leading crayon producers according to annual revenue, units sold, manufacturing output, product variety, retail reach, and brand power, the dominant leader across these metrics is clear:
Crayola
Crayola is undoubtedly the world’s largest crayon company. As a flagship brand of Hallmark Cards with over 100 years of history and heritage, Crayola reigns supreme in the global crayon industry today.
Here’s why Crayola takes the top spot among crayon companies:
- Crayola generates over $1 billion in annual revenue, significantly higher than competitors.
- Roughly 1.5 billion Crayola crayons are produced each year, or enough crayons to circle the globe multiple times.
- The company offers over 120 different crayon products, from classic boxes to novelty configurations.
- Crayola crayons and art supplies are available at virtually every mass and specialty retailer in over 80 countries.
- Crayola is one of the most recognizable brand names across generations and cultures, indicating tremendous consumer awareness and loyalty.
Beyond scale, Crayola also leads in quality, innovation, and consumer appeal:
- Their crayons are known for rich color, smooth laydown, and durability.
- Crayola pioneers new crayon formulations like washable, erasable, scented, and colored pencils.
- Their brand inspires creativity and emotional connection across ages and demographics.
From revenue and output to availability and brand power, Crayola dominates as the preeminent global crayon company. Their financial growth reflects their leading market share across retail channels. While competitors serve niches, none come close to matching Crayola’s combination of sales volume, production, distribution, and brand equity. For these reasons, Crayola stands alone as the world’s largest crayon enterprise.
Crayola Product Offerings
A look at Crayola’s extensive product lineup shows how they deliver diverse crayon options to every consumer segment:
Classic Crayons – Crayola’s signature boxed crayons like the 8-count with sharpener, 24 pack, and 64 pack with built-in sharpener offer iconic, vibrant color.
Large/Jumbo Crayons – Bigger crayons like the 8-count large/jumbo provide easy grip for young children.
Short Crayons – Smaller sized crayons allow portability and fit smaller hands.
Twistables Crayons – Twist-up crayons don’t require peeling or sharpening.
Erasable Crayons – Crayons that erase from surfaces allow mess-free coloring.
Washable Crayons – These crayons easily wash from skin, walls, and fabrics using soap and water.
Silly Scents Crayons – Crayola’s scented crayons contain fun fragrances to enhance the coloring experience.
Glitter Crayons – Crayons with shimmering glitter provide sparkly effects.
Neon Crayons – Vibrant, ultra-bright neon crayon shades lend bold coloring.
Pearlescent Crayons – Crayons with pearlescent finishes offer luminous, shimmering hues.
Metallic Crayons – Gold, silver, bronze, and other metallic crayon colors create shine.
Multicultural Crayons – Diverse skin tone crayons represent over 40 global skin shades.
Fabulous on the Go Crayons – Portable mini color packs for travel and pocket-sized portability.
This extensive selection across standard, novelty, and premium crayon offerings fuels Crayola’s market leadership and merchandising presence across retail. Their innovation pipeline continually expands their product range and consumer appeal.
Crayola Brand Story
Crayola’s brand story has touched the lives of generations of children and families:
- Founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith in Easton, PA, they produced colorants like red iron oxide used in barn paint.
- The company then transitioned to making art supplies, launching their first Crayola crayons in 1903 with basic wax crayon sticks.
- The Crayola name combined “craie” (French for chalk) and “ola” (short for oily).
- Over the decades, Binney & Smith introduced Crayola’s signature green and gold box packaging.
- They pioneered non-toxic, child-safe crayons using vibrant pigments.
- Memorable advertising campaigns made Crayola a fixture in popular culture.
- The 1964 Crayola 64-pack with built-in sharpener became their flagship product.
- Crayola became the #1 crayon brand and a staple art supply for preschools, schools, and crafts.
- The company changed its name to Crayola LLC as their brand surpassed corporate identity.
- Crayola expanded beyond crayons into markers, colored pencils, and arts/crafts.
- Special edition crayon sets featuring licensed characters created collectability.
- Today Crayola dominates crayon sales, outpacing all rivals as America’s crayon icon.
Crayola’s 12-decade rise to becoming the world’s top crayon brand relied on product innovation, creativity, quality, and consumer passion. Their crayons inspire artistic exploration and imagination in children while invoking nostalgia across generations.
Crayola Brand Values
Crayola’s brand success stems from key values that resonate with consumers:
Innovation – Developing new crayon technologies and product ideas.
Imagination – Fueling creative spirit and self-expression.
Inspiration – Motivating colorists and artists.
Creativity – Enabling experimentation with color.
Originality – Promoting unique creations.
Self-Expression – Facilitating emotional and personal artwork.
Fun – Making coloring enjoyable.
Education – Teaching and developing children.
Quality – Delivering superior color vibrancy, smooth laydown, and durability.
Safety – Ensuring child-safe, non-toxic materials.
Value – Offering affordable tools for artistic exploration.
By staying true to these brand pillars spanning creativity, imagination, self-expression and fun, Crayola has builtlifetime consumer affinity and loyalty across demographics.
Crayola Marketing & Advertising
Integral to Crayola’s brand dominance has been their memorable marketing over the decades. Their advertising highlights the fun, interactive nature of crayons.
Key themes and messages in Crayola ads include:
- Kids proudly displaying their artistic creations.
- Cultivating creativity, self-expression and imagination.
- Enabling colorful experimentation.
- Putting crayons to use coloring book pages.
- Emphasizing the safe, non-toxic qualities.
- Depicting crayon packs as the perfect gift.
- Featuring limited edition and novelty crayon offerings.
- Partnering with licensed franchises like Disney.
- Embedding crayons into cultural milestones like back-to-school.
Memorable slogans like “Crayola. It’s fun to imagine!” reinforce the creative spirit. By capturing childhood wonder and modeling usages, their ads translate into sales at retail. Their marketing inspires the next generation of Crayola loyalists.
Competitive Landscape
While Crayola leads crayon sales by a wide margin, competitors try to chip away at their dominance in niche areas:
- Cra-Z-Art competes with licensed entertainment crayons.
- Stadium Crayons touts specialty features like true color and smoothness.
- Sakura Crayons offer Japanese quality and unique manga art.
- Maped emphasizes European styling and modern colors.
- BIC Kids focuses on school and bulk sales.
- Dixon Ticonderoga pitches sturdy jumbo crayons for preschoolers.
However, none match Crayola’s brand strength, consumer loyalty, range, retail distribution, and continuous innovation. Crayola enjoys an estimated 75% market share in the crayon category, leveraging its iconic brand stature and emotional connections with consumers. Competitors find it impossible to replicate Crayola’s stature that’s been built over a century.
Future Outlook
Crayola shows no signs of slowing down in their crayon domination, projected to continue leading the crayon race into the future.
Growth drivers for Crayola include:
- Leveraging digital marketing and social media for deeper youth engagement.
- Innovation pipelines producing next-gen crayon technologies.
- Cultivating international growth especially in emerging markets.
- Responding to consumer trends like adult coloring and arts/crafts movements.
- Launching crayon sets featuring on-trend licensed franchises.
- Expanding distribution through omnichannel retail partnerships.
Given their brand loyalty across generations, Crayola seems poised to only extend their crayon lead over decades more to come. Their market share outpaces all competitors. As long as Crayola maintains the product quality, innovative spirit, and magical appeal that has defined the brand, they will likely maintain their reign as the largest crayon company worldwide. From backpacks to birthday parties, Crayola crayons color childhoods and create memories to last a lifetime.
Conclusion
Crayola has dominated the global crayon industry for over
