Address:
6515 Grand Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60707
U.S.A.
Telephone: (773) 637-7100
Toll Free: 800-621-7613
Fax: (773) 637-8874
http://www.radioflyer.com
Private Company
Incorporated: 1923 as Liberty Coaster Wagon Company
Employees: 100
Sales: $26.5 million (1998 est.)
NAIC: 339932 Game, Toy, and Children's Vehicle Manufacturing
Located on Chicago's Far West Side, Radio Flyer is the world's leading wagon maker, manufacturing high-quality products for children since 1917. The makers of the original little red wagon, Radio Flyer is the only company to produce plastic, steel and wood wagons. Radio Flyer is one of the oldest remaining national toy companies still owned and operated by the founding family.
1917: Italian immigrant Antonio Pasin begins producing and selling children's wooden wagons in Chicago.
1923: Pasin founds the Liberty Coaster Wagon Company.
1930: Company is renamed Radio Steel & Manufacturing.
1941: Radio Steel converts to wartime manufacturing.
1957: Firm extends product lines beyond toys, to garden carts.
1987: Radio Steel changes name again, to Radio Flyer Inc.
1994: Company begins producing new line of plastic wagons.
Chiem, Phat X., 'Blazing a New Wagon Trail,' Chicago Tribune, February 15, 2000, pp. B1, B4.
Frankston, Janet, 'Radio Flyer Inc., Little Tikes Co. in Toy Patent Dispute,' Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, August 1, 1996, p. 8010045.
Neville, Lee, 'Toy Story,' U.S. News & World Report, October 20, 1997, p. 12.
'Product Recalls,' Consumers' Research Magazine, November 1992, p. 36.
'Radio Flyer Rolls Out New Wagons,' Playthings, July 1996, p. 46. Source: International Directory of Company Histories , Vol. 34. St. James Press, 2000.