DEMDACO

A Kansas City-based artist-driven gift company best known as the home of Willow Tree®, the figurative sculpture line that has been the #1 gift line in the industry since 2000.

Founded

May 1997

Headquarters

Leawood, Kansas

Founders

Demi Lloyd, Dave Kiersznowski

Ownership

Privately held, founder-led

Retailers

~12,000 independent stores

Artist partners

100+

Distribution

Edgerton, KS — 327,000 sq ft

Tagline

Lift the Spirit

The story

The company name is a portmanteau of its founders' first names — DEMi Lloyd and DAve Kiersznowski — pronounced “dem-day-koh.” The two had previously run an import business called DD Traders out of Hong Kong; they returned to the United States and founded DEMDACO in May 1997, recruiting three local artists to help develop the first products.

A few years in, they introduced Willow Tree®, a line of carved figurative sculpture by artist Susan Lordi. The pieces are deliberately faceless — meaning is conveyed through gesture, posture, and the small details of how a figure holds itself. The line took off so quickly that DEMDACO booked more sales in January 2000 than in the entire previous year. It has been the top-selling gift line in the industry every year since.

What they make

Willow Tree remains the flagship, but the catalog now includes the Giving Collection® (gift-occasion items including the much-imitated Giving Bear®), a women's accessories line, kitchen and tabletop, baby and christening pieces, ornaments, and a continually expanding range of artisan-driven home décor. All product is designed in partnership with the company's network of more than 100 artists, and is handcrafted overseas in factories run by a small group of long-term manufacturing partners.

Packaging is a deliberate brand cue — every product ships with a bookmark and a postcard, both designed to extend the gift's emotional life beyond the moment of opening.

How they sell

Distribution is primarily wholesale to about 12,000 independent retailers — mom-and-pop gift shops, florists, hospital gift shops, and select national accounts. The company's distribution center in Edgerton, Kansas is 327,000 square feet, in operation since 2014. DEMDACO exhibits at all the major U.S. gift markets and operates retail concepts in Kansas City, including a flagship store at the Legends Mall.

In recent years the company has expanded into direct-to-consumer sales through demdaco.com and willowtree.com, but the wholesale channel remains the primary business.

Why they're worth knowing

Willow Tree alone is a category-definer. For independent retailers, carrying Willow Tree is often a baseline expectation — customers walk into a gift shop looking for a particular figure for a particular occasion (a sympathy piece, a wedding piece, a new-baby piece), and a store without Willow Tree may lose that sale entirely.

Beyond the flagship line, DEMDACO's broader catalog is positioned around emotional gift-giving moments — comfort, celebration, sympathy, milestones — which gives an independent retailer multiple natural use cases to merchandise around. The brand's “Lift the Spirit” positioning is genuine; the company has run a Holiday Shop with Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City every December since 2011.

Where to find them

• Wholesale site: demdaco.com
• Willow Tree: willowtree.com
• Headquarters: 5000 W. 134th Street, Leawood, KS 66209
• Trade show presence: Atlanta Market, Las Vegas Market, Dallas Total Home & Gift, NY NOW

Profile based on public information from DEMDACO's official site, the company's Lift the Spirit podcast, and trade press coverage. Updated March 2026. Return to all profiles →