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Teddy bears - tens of thousands of soft, fuzzy teddy bears - line the new factory floor at the Chelsea Teddy Bear Company.
It's owner Bob Turner's dream come true.
There are black bears. Brown bears. Small bears, big bears. And some dogs and cats, too, all waiting to be dressed in mini-customized outfits and sent off to a loving home.
After months of planning, the Chelsea Teddy Bear Co. recently completed its move to a new 33,500 square-foot space within the Chelsea Clock Tower complex. It will host a grand opening at its new factory facility and retail store on Saturday.
"We think this is awesome, we are so glad everything came together,'' Turner said. "It's hard when you first try to visualize something like this.''
Previously, the company maintained offices on the second floor of the main Clock Tower building. It never intended that space for a retail store, but a small one eventually grew there. The company also had its factory/warehouse a mile away.
The new building allowed Chelsea Teddy Bear to expand the store, put everything under one roof and offer scheduled tours. It hopes to become a visitor destination in Chelsea, much like Chelsea Milling Co., which makes Jiffy mixes.
The free tours will include teddy bear history lessons, explanations on how bears are designed and manufactured, and visuals of local workers dressing and packing bears for shipment.
The company also boasts what it says is the world's largest real teddy bear, Goliath, which is over 10-feet tall when he's all stuffed and standing, as well as a 7-foot tall stuffed smiling Grizzly bear.
Chelsea Teddy Bear Co. was founded in 2003 and is known for its personalized teddy bears sold to schools and the military. The U.S. Navy is the company's largest single customer.
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