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We've always gone where the value is.

Three generations. Three moves across the map. And one idea that hasn't changed since 1949: make the everyday things people need, make them well, and make them cost less.

1949 Cleveland, Ohio
1975 Taiwan
Late 1990s Mainland China
Today 7 sourcing regions
  1. 1949Cleveland, Ohio
  2. 1975Taiwan
  3. Late 1990sMainland China
  4. Today7 sourcing regions
Chapter one 1949 Cleveland, Ohio

It started with bakeware.

In 1949, Harry Schwartz started G&S Metal Products in Cleveland, Ohio. It made metal bakeware: the cake pans, cookie sheets and muffin tins that American families bake with every day.

G&S grew into the largest maker of metal bakeware in the United States. Along the way it taught the family the business they still know best: everyday products, made well, made in volume, at a price people can afford.

1949G&S Metal Products starts in Cleveland
Largestmaker of metal bakeware in the US
Where we are today
Harry Schwartz in his office, in a shirt and striped tie
Harry Schwartz, who started G&S Metal Products in Cleveland in 1949.
Harry Schwartz in a housewares display of kettles, kitchen gadgets and baking pans
Harry among the kettles, kitchen gadgets and baking pans.
Chapter two 1975 Taiwan

The next generation went where the factories were going.

By the 1970s, more and more of what filled American stores was made in Asia, and production was moving from Japan to Taiwan. Harry's son, Jeffrey Schwartz, went with it. In 1975 he opened Fourstar in Taiwan: an American business, close to the factories, working for American retailers.

Fourstar started with what the family knew: kitchen gadgets, kitchen tools, housewares and bakeware. Its early customers included Kmart, Sears and JCPenney, some of the biggest names in American retail at the time.

1975Fourstar opens in Taiwan
Kmart · Sears · JCPenneyamong the first customers
Where we are today
Jeffrey Schwartz at the Four Star Company booth of a US housewares trade show, with kitchen gadgets in blister packs
Jeffrey Schwartz in from the Taiwan office for a US housewares trade show, 1970s. Even then, the package did the selling.
Jeffrey Schwartz reviewing a program with visiting American buyers in a Taiwan showroom of bentwood chairs and housewares
With visiting American buyers in Taiwan, early 1980s, finalizing a housewares and kitchen gadget program.
Chapter three 1990s Taiwan

From the kitchen to the whole store.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, one category led to the next: kitchen tools, then housewares, then aisle after aisle across the store, each one run by people who knew it well.

Fourstar sold to every kind of store, from department stores to discounters, and grew into one of the largest broad-line trading companies in Taiwan.

Broad-linehousewares to toys to seasonal, under one roof
One of the largesttrading companies in Taiwan
Where we are today
Jeffrey Schwartz with his young son on a toy motorcycle in the Taipei showroom, among baseball gloves, bikes and sporting goods
The Taipei showroom in the 1980s: baseball gloves, bikes, ride-ons. The test driver is Jeffrey's son, who became managing director in 2021, the third generation to run the company.
Chapter four 2000s Mainland China

Early again, and clear about what we do best.

When manufacturing opened up in mainland China in the late 1990s and 2000s, Fourstar moved early again, and grew with it.

Over the years Fourstar had sold everything from high-end to low-end. Now it chose a focus: everyday products at very low prices and very high volume, for dollar stores, discounters and the largest retailers. It is still the business, and still what we do best.

Late 1990sinto mainland China
Value at volumethe focus ever since
Where we are today
Everyday products at volume: tumblers, cookie jars, flip-flops, gumball machines, a Christmas village, solar flowers, holiday mugs and plush
Everyday things, at very high volume: the focus since the 2000s.
Chapter five 2017 Shenzhen

A headquarters built around the buyer.

In 2017 Fourstar opened a purpose-built global headquarters in Shenzhen, designed around the way retail buyers work: one building where a buyer can see trends, testing and a full-scale store in a single visit.

Take the tour on About us →

One visittrends, testing and the showroom
Full-scalestore inside the showroom
Where we are today
The Shenzhen showroom: store shelving with color-changing LED lights, solar garden stakes and home goods
The showroom: a full-scale store, set up aisle by aisle.
Colleagues at the yellow coffee bar beside the Market Intelligence lounge in the Shenzhen headquarters
The coffee bar beside Market Intelligence, where a lot of ideas start.
Chapter six Today Tampa, Shenzhen and beyond

Seven sourcing regions. The same instinct.

The map keeps changing, so we keep moving with it. Production now runs across more than 600 partner factories in China, Southeast Asia, India, Turkey, Europe, Latin America and the United States, placed program by program wherever the value is best.

We are 500+ people, with our US headquarters in Tampa and our global headquarters in Shenzhen, making over a billion products a year for some of the largest retailers in the Americas and Europe. Still family-run and privately held, and since 2021 led by the third generation.

600+partner factories
1B+products a year
3rdgeneration running the company
Where we are today
The Americas05
  • Tampa, FloridaUS headquarters
  • Cleveland, Ohio
  • Milford, Massachusetts
  • Bentonville, Arkansas
  • Mexico City
Asia10
  • ShenzhenGlobal headquarters
  • Taipei
  • Hong Kong
  • Guangzhou
  • Ningbo
  • Ho Chi Minh City
  • Hanoi
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Phnom Penh
  • New Delhi
US distribution02
  • Akron, Ohio
  • California
A Fourstar team meeting around a conference table, with the city skyline through the windows
Planning the next program. The view changes; the instinct doesn't.
The pattern

Every time the world changed where things are made, we got there early.

Each move was made on behalf of American retailers, and each time the same family was at the table. That's the advantage we bring to a buyer: we've already done the hard part of finding where the value is.

What hasn't changed

The map has changed three times. We haven't.

New countries, new categories, new customers. Underneath, the same four things from 1949.

Still family

Three generations, and still privately held. We plan in decades, not quarters.

Still American

American roots and American customers, wherever the factories happen to be.

Still everyday things

From cake pans in 1949 to thirteen divisions today: the things people actually use.

Still going where the value is

Wherever it moves next, we intend to be there early, on our customers' behalf.

Three generations in, we're still finding the value and bringing it home.

See what we make today Work with us
Next · About us Who we are today Our values, where we are, our Shenzhen headquarters, and how to join us.

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