Wilton Products Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Wilton Products full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good salary and people that work there are great people. Lots of energy to be creative and share ideas.

Cons – Very political to move up in the organization, not a clear career path to follow. Old school management style and HQ has dated facilities.

Advice to Senior Management – Spend some time on the ground floor and walk around to see what is going on. Ask for more honest feedback and empower the entry workers to want to have a career.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Wilton Products full-time for less than a year

Pros – Made quite a bit of money

Cons – They had us switch from day shift to night shift for 3 weeks then back to day shift. The shifts were 8 hours long but for the night shifts they basically told us if you don't want to work 10-12 hours every day (including both saturday and sunday) we have other people that'd do it so you'd be let go. Immoral in my book.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Wilton Products

Pros – Summer hours, employee discount, some great people

Cons – not much flexibility in schedule, can't work from home, some people are very difficult

Advice to Senior Management – Allow flexible schedules - work from home one day a week.

Former Employee – worked at Wilton Products full-time for more than a year

Pros – Cool products, tent sale, emails from CEO, pay, benefits, not much comes to mind... as a customer I love Wilton but not so much as an employee

Cons – I agree with the guy who said forecasting is terrible and they're too SKU happy. The software was buggy and we always lost information and things were always switched around. Their data base was very unstable if you ask me and as a result it was very hard for us to forecast which items would sell. Management did nothing to help, they just told us to work with what we had. Our department had a high turnover rate, so we were always getting new employees and piling stuff on them without enough training, and that led to even more mishandling of our data. Most coworkers were nice but they were so cliquey, like we were in high school instead of an office setting. There was some OBVIOUS favoritism going on between managers and employees, and the good smart hardworking ones who didn't stoop to the level of butt kissing got looked over. I was tired of seeing the slackers get promoted over others who put in long hours and actually got stuff done. I also noticed that management wasn't big on communicating ... they expected us to read their minds. Same goes for some coworkers. A lot of mistakes were made because noone communicated with each other. When I was there all the people who quit over time were the smart ones who actually put in a lot of time and effort into doing their jobs right and they quit because they were tired of being overworked and ignored at the same time. I was one of them and I'm glad that I found a better job.

Advice to Senior Management – Start listening to ALL of your employees (that means NO playing favorites) and take the time to recognize the ones who cared enough to do things right instead of your best friends. Get a better system, it will make everyone's life easier.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Wilton Products

Pros – Despite all its shortcomings the company has: a laidback environment, great products, reputable CEO, nice holiday parties, culture of celebration, and tent sale

Cons – Difficult for minorities to move up within the company, lots of coworkers waste time standing around gossiping about each other, too many lazy employees, lack of communication by upper management, outdated data system, salaries are not competitive, management lack progressive thinking, generally don't like change, stuck in their old ways, force low-paying entry level employees stay overtime to do other people's jobs... must I go on....

Advice to Senior Management – The company is not as progressive as it should be. You should re-evaluate your employees and whether they're bringing Wilton to the next level. When I worked there I saw too many coworkers goof off I wondered why they were even allowed to work there in the first place. Be careful... a lot of them pretend to work hard only when you're around. You should do an overhaul of the company and with more productive people you might end up with a better driven company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Wilton Products

Pros – Great people, and good business practices

Cons – receiving a promotion is difficult, salaries are not competitive

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Wilton Products

Pros – Good Brand, Fun company culture of celebration

Cons – Very limited communication or feedback on performance

Former Employee – worked at Wilton Products

Pros – friendly and outgoing staff always there for socialization
lots of products
knowledgeable management that was usually always available
Nice perks

Cons – entry level employees not given enough support
lack of direction by upper level management
few, if any opportunities for advancement

Advice to Senior Management – develop more cross-cultural sensitivity and learn how to interact with international customers
provide some direction to the company instead of worrying about how you are perceived by others

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Wilton Products

Pros – Eager to get you in and started. Salary was fair, benefits were okay. Some of the co-workers seem eager to help you.

Cons – Too much of a "woman's world". In a department of 11, 6 were gone on maternity leave. They don't like outside opinions. I was told that in order to get a head, you would have to put in 12 hour days.. every day. Lunch was suppose to be taken at your desk while you work. Their forecasting is terrible. They don't worry about it, just to "put out the fires." Product is made in China so lead times are months away. They are way to SKU happy. You can have one planner managing 7K-9K SKU's. There is no flex time and their system is very old.

Advice to Senior Management – There are more than one way to do things. Listen to people before you make your decisions. The "people in the trenches" know more than you know.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Wilton Products

Pros – Great brand, awesome tent sale, HR team was good, great move package (at least it was before venture capital owned them), excellent distribution system, technologically advanced.

Cons – Division was shut down due to competition from China, and direct outsourcing by our customers. Brand is good but the venture capatilists rolling it all together and leveraging that much debt into one company can't be good.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on employees is good but always can be better - don't forget about management trainee programs and bringing in young stars that make for future contributors.