An Industry in Pieces

Sometimes the key to success in business is just a matter of finding the right fit.

Perhaps no one knows that better than the half dozen puzzle businesses that call NH home, from one-man operations to the United States headquarters of Ravensburger, the multimillion-dollar German-based toy and puzzle company with offices in Newton.

Ted Wroblewski and Cronin Minton of White Mountain Puzzles got into the business quite by accident, and now their Jackson company sells upwards of one million puzzles annually. The duo started the business in 1978 selling resort posters to support their families in rural NH. In the late 1980s they had extra resort posters and made them into puzzles, which flew off the shelf. Now with 10 employees, the company sells more than 300 different images and can make custom puzzles with up to 100 pieces. The company generates about $6 million in sales and business is up about 15 percent from a year ago.

White Mountain Puzzles' wholesale customers include Amazon.com (their largest customer), Walmart, Target and Hobby Lobby. Eighteen months ago they opened a retail store in Jackson, and business is now split 80/20 between wholesale and retail. Wroblewski says it's a competitive business, so the company offers 60 new puzzles each year to entice buyers. Each fall, it sends out a catalogue to 80,000 people.

Customization is the sweet spot for Piece Time Puzzles in Northwood. Mark, Rose and Haley Stevens create custom puzzles with up to 1,000 pieces using a machine designed and built by Mark. The company sells eight sizes of puzzles and last year produced 1,000 ranging in price from $14.95 to $59.95.

It's been growing exponentially, says Haley Stevens, a co-owner with her parents. She says the company also sold more than 3,000 puzzles of its own designs last year, all manufactured in Northwood, with the most popular being a black and white image of The Old Man of the Mountain. The company works with 72 individual artists, mostly in NH.

For people looking for an even greater challenge, Fool's Gold Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles in Harrisville provides puzzles that come with no picture of the completed puzzle and can have a variety of features including holes, irregular edges and pieces stacked on top of each other. Owner David Beffa-Negrini started the business in 1997. Fool's Gold Custom Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles makes custom hardwood jigsaw puzzles with up to 1,200 pieces using quarter-inch thick basswood.

Wooden puzzles are not cheap, costing $1.75 to $2.75 per puzzle piece, or about $300 for a 160-piece puzzle that is the size of a regular piece of paper, with two pieces per square inch. When you finish the puzzle it's like a little piece of furniture, so it's pretty high end, says Beffa-Negrini, adding the pieces come in a gold lame bag and are in a box en   graved with a gold jester, the date and his signature. Beffa-Negrini says one popular option is the wedding puzzle, where wedding attendees all sign the pieces of the puzzle that form the couple's portrait and it is presented to them as a finished piece or in a bag. Over the years he has made more than 100 of them. He sells them through his website and at some galleries.

Puzzles-as-art is also the focus for Aaron T. Brown of Lyndeborough, who makes 3-D puzzles. Brown is a sculptor by trade and started making puzzles in 1983. All his puzzles are hand-cut and range from 20 to 200 pieces.

Brown sells the puzzles, made of mahogany, walnut and cherry, at craft fairs along the East Coast. His upscale creations are marketed for adults and people who collect handmade puzzles. Over the years, he has cut more than 500,000 individual pieces with a band saw.

For more information visit foolsgoldpuzzles.com, whitemountainpuzzles.com, aarontbrownpuzzles.com and piecetimepuzzles.com.