Bendon Adds Hinkler’s Craft and Coloring Brands

Bendon, a designer and distributor of children’s coloring and activity books backed by Brightstar Capital Partners, has acquired the North American business of Hinkler, an Australian publisher of children’s books, crafts and games.

Hinkler’s North American business sells coloring and activity books, early learning products, stationery, puzzles, arts and crafts kits, toys and games to US retailers including Walmart, Target and Meijer. Its portfolio is built around three brands: Kaleidoscope, a line of coloring and activity books; Craft Maker, a range of arts and crafts kits; and Piccadilly, which makes guided journals and sketchbooks.

Nearly all of the portfolio consists of Hinkler-owned brands rather than characters licensed from entertainment companies. Piccadilly, founded in the US by Terry Hailwood, joined Hinkler in May 2024. It manufactures in Vietnam and sells to Walmart, Target and Meijer.

Hinkler, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and led by CEO Nadika Garber, was founded in 1994 and publishes book-and-kit combinations, games and puzzles, selling about 20 million units a year in 38 languages across 77 countries.

“Over the past three decades, Hinkler and Bendon have built a strong, collaborative relationship grounded in mutual respect, shared values, and a common commitment to delivering high-quality, engaging products for children and families,” said Ms. Garber. “We are thrilled to see Hinkler’s North American business enter this next chapter with Bendon. We believe that Bendon’s scale, category expertise, and deep retail partnerships will enable the Hinkler brands to flourish and reach even more consumers.”

Bendon designs coloring books, activity pads, workbooks, puzzles and activity sets. Its products include augmented-reality workbooks, which use a phone or tablet camera to add animation to the printed page. Owned brands include Imagine Ink, Piggy Toes Press and T.S. Shure, and the company also publishes products featuring characters licensed from Disney, Nickelodeon, Marvel and Universal.

The company sells through mass retailers, warehouse clubs, dollar stores and online channels, with customers including Walmart, Target, Costco, Dollar Tree and Amazon. CEO Ben Ferguson founded Bendon in 2001, and the company is headquartered about 65 miles southwest of Cleveland in Ashland, Ohio.

“We couldn’t be happier with the Hinkler North America acquisition,” said Mr. Ferguson. “We have known the owners for nearly 30 years and have tremendous respect for what they have built. Hinkler brings established brands, innovative products and strong category expertise, while Bendon brings significant retail relationships, distribution and product development capabilities. We believe the combination creates substantial opportunities to offer our retail partners a deeper assortment across more categories and price points.”

The buy of the North American business of Hinkler is the second add-on for Bendon since Brightstar invested in the company in April 2026, following its July acquisition of School Zone Publishing. Hinkler’s Australian and international operations are not part of the sale and will continue under their existing ownership.

Bendon has had three private equity owners. The Wicks Group acquired a majority stake in 2012 and backed two add-ons: Dalmatian Press, a Tennessee-based publisher of children’s coloring books acquired from Anderson Press (2013), and Artistic Studios, a San Francisco-based maker of children’s art sets, crafts and activity products (2014).

Irving Place Capital acquired Bendon from Wicks in March 2015. At the time, Bendon sold more than 350 million units a year through more than 80,000 retail outlets in North America. Brightstar invested in April 2026, making Bendon the first investment of its lower middle market strategy.

In July 2026, Bendon acquired School Zone, a Michigan-based publisher of teacher-developed workbooks and flash cards for kindergarten through sixth grade. Founded in 1979, School Zone sells through Amazon, Costco, Walmart and Target and also operates Anywhere Teacher, a digital learning subscription service. With Hinkler North America, Bendon now pairs its licensed entertainment properties with a growing set of owned brands across activity, education and crafts.

Brightstar  is a middle-market private equity firm focused on control investments in business services, industrials, consumer, and government services and technology companies. Brightstar closed its third fund in April 2024 with $1.26 billion of commitments. Brightstar was founded in 2015 by Chief Executive Officer Andrew Weinberg and has offices in New York City and West Palm Beach.