So apparently Brio did not go bankrupt, it went private. And according to DT trainspotter Nelson, it has returned to the US market it had abandoned in 2008 after the financial crisis and the newer, stricter toy testing regulations of the CPSIA went into effect.
Also, I went to my Swedish dentist this morning and so got all caught up on my six-month-old news about the royal family. Did you know that last February, Prince Carl Philip posted a photo on his Facebook page of his sister Crown Princess Victoria and her trainer-turned-prince husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, pushing their new, little Princess Estelle around the grounds in a Brio stroller? This happened.
And more importantly, it led to this odd statement from the head of Brio:
"BRIO is naturally both proud and happy that the Crown Princess Couple have chosen to buy and use a pram from BRIO. This is a choice they made themselves without any influence from us in the same way that the Crown Princess' parents chose to let her lie in a BRIO baby carriage when she herself was a baby," says Håkan Johansson, the managing director of BRIO Baby.Mhmm. Meanwhile, Johansson was replaced shortly after this totally mysterious coincidence. Presumably, Princess Estelle has been left outside the palace in her pram ever since. That's how they roll.The baby carriage that the Crown Princess Couple have chosen to use is a pram of the type BRIO Happy. The BRIO Happy is a classic pram model which is practical, comfortable and ergonomic to push. The 2012 model of the BRIO Happy comes in a choice of 11 different colours.
"The by far and away most popular colour of Happy is black, but the Crown Princess Couple have a navy blue pram which is not included in our regular range. The development department of BRIO Baby produced this design with quilted navy blue textiles especially for the Crown Princess Couple without knowing whether they would choose to use it," says Håkan Johansson.
Choice of Pram, 2012-02-29 [brio.net]
