South Tyneside crafting company Katy Sue has acquired one of its largest competitors in a significant international expansion.

The company, which is implementing a buy and build strategy to consolidate the fragmented craft market, has completed the acquisition of Austrian mould manufacturer Alphabet Moulds.

Having grown rapidly by acquisition over the past four years, Katy Sue, headed by founder Sue Balfour, has acquired Acrylic Crafts, a maker of laser cut craft supplies, paper craft experts Craft Creations and last year completed the acquisition of paper quilling experts JJ Quilling.

Alphabet Moulds brings with it over 300 new mould designs along with additional manufacturing capacity perfected over the past 11 years.

Ms Balfour said: “We have known the owners Helen and David for some time and have always admired their business which has a complimentary customer base to ours but is predominantly based in Europe.

“We are delighted they have trusted us with maintaining the legacy of Alphabet Moulds and we have ambitious plans to develop that website and grow our newly expanded capability.”

Alphabet Moulds owners Helen and David Moseley added: “We always felt there was a good cultural and creative fit between the two businesses, and we see a combination of the businesses as the right next step for Alphabet Moulds.

“We can assure all our customers and partners that after a slight pause to make the transfer it will be business as usual, with all production moving to Katy Sue’s large UK manufacturing site in South Shields and the website www.alphabetmoulds.com remaining as the core web channel.”