NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xcel Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: XELB), a media and consumer products company known for building influential, creator-led brands, today announced a strategic partnership with TSC Product Lab to launch GemmaMade by Gemma Stafford—a new kitchenware brand created in close collaboration with chef and baking expert Gemma Stafford, designed to bring stylish, functional, and approachable tools to everyday bakers and home cooks.

This collaboration blends Xcel’s omnichannel brand-building capabilities with TSC Product Lab’s innovation-driven product development, delivering a thoughtfully designed assortment of kitchen products that reflect Stafford’s personal passion for joyful, stress-free cooking and baking at home. The product line will include bakeware, kitchen tools, food storage solutions, mixing bowls, and more—each created to support everyday needs with ease, charm, and reliability.

“GemmaMade is a celebration of the home kitchen,” said Robert W. D'Loren, Chairman and CEO of Xcel Brands. “We’re thrilled to partner with Gemma and TSC Product Lab to bring her vision to life through products that are as inviting and dependable as the content she shares with her loyal audience.”

With millions of fans and years of experience as a professionally trained chef, Gemma Stafford has built one of the most trusted and beloved baking communities in the world through her digital brand Bigger Bolder Baking. As both the creator and namesake behind GemmaMade, Gemma has worked hands-on with Xcel and TSC to develop a line that reflects her bold baking philosophy, her Irish heritage, and her belief that anyone can create delicious food with the right tools and a little confidence

“At the heart of GemmaMade is a simple promise: to super-serve home bakers and cooks with tools they can trust and love,” said Gemma Stafford. “I created this line for the everyday bakers and cooks who show up for birthdays, holidays, after-school snacks, and Sunday mornings—because they deserve products that are as joyful and reliable as they are. With Xcel and TSC, I’m excited to share the warmth of Irish hospitality through every bowl, pan, and spatula. In my kitchen, everyone’s welcome—because in a way, everyone is Irish.”

Rick Lapine, President of TSC Product Lab, added: “We are proud to be working with Gemma and Xcel to launch a brand that blends tradition and GemmaMade by Gemma Stafford reinforces Xcel Brands’ ongoing mission to build creator-led businesses that resonate with modern consumers and support how people live, cook, and share today.”

For more information, please visit www.xcelbrands.com

About Xcel Brands
Xcel Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: XELB) is a media and consumer products company engaged in the design, licensing, marketing, live streaming, and social commerce sales of branded apparel, footwear, accessories, fine jewelry, home goods and other consumer products, and the acquisition of dynamic consumer lifestyle brands. Xcel was founded in 2011 with a vision to reimagine shopping, entertainment, and social media as social commerce. Xcel owns the Halston, Judith Ripka, and C. Wonder brands, as well as the co-branded collaboration brands TowerHill by Christie Brinkley, LB70 by Lloyd Boston, Trust. Respect. Love by Cesar Millan, GemmaMade by Gemma Stafford, and a brand in development with Coco Rocha and also holds noncontrolling interests or long-term license agreements in the Isaac Mizrahi brand, Orme Live and Mesa Mia by Jenny Martinez brands. Xcel also owns and manages the Longaberger brand through its controlling interest in Longaberger Licensing, LLC. Xcel is pioneering a true modern consumer products sales strategy which includes the promotion and sale of products under its brands through interactive television, digital live-stream shopping, social commerce, brick-and-mortar retailers, and e-commerce channels to be everywhere its customers shop. The company’s brands have generated in excess of $5 billion in retail sales via livestreaming in interactive television and digital channels alone and consisting of over 20,000 hours of content production time in live-stream and social commerce. The brand portfolio reaches in excess of 43 million social media followers with broadcast reach into 200 million households. Headquartered in New York City, Xcel Brands is led by an executive team with significant live streaming, production, merchandising, design, marketing, retailing, and licensing experience, and a proven track record of success in elevating branded consumer products companies. For more information, visit www.xcelbrands.com .

About TSC Lab Products
The Sneaky Chef Product Lab (“TSC”) is a cost-effective product development and sourcing company specializing in innovative solutions for the home. The Company’s mission is to create products and brands for leading retailers. Since 2007, TSC has built a diverse portfolio of owned, private label and exclusively licensed brands and has partnered with such legacy names such as Martha Stewart, Sodastream, GreenPan and Calvin Klein. Its network of retail partners includes HSN, QVC, Walmart, Amazon and TJX Companies among others.

Led by Rick Lapine, an industry veteran with decades of experience, TSC is supported by a full-time team of passionate experts, bringing over 30 years of combined expertise in sourcing and production. This team has helped establish TSC as a trusted partner for efficient product development, manufacturing, and logistics, with the capability to execute projects rapidly and reliably.

About Gemma Stafford

For more than a decade, Irish-born chef Gemma Stafford has been bringing her passion for teaching people how to bake with confidence to her top online baking show and brand, Bigger Bolder Baking. Today, with more than 8 million followers (“Bold Bakers”) and half a billion video views to date, Bigger Bolder Baking has become the leading – and indispensable – multimedia destination for bakers. Gemma’s unique combination of expertise, bold recipes, and approachable techniques have led to appearances as a judge on Netflix’s Nailed It!, Food Network’s Best Baker in America, and Hulu’s Baker’s Dozen, along with appearances on national and local TV nationwide. Gemma is also the co-creator and host of the #1 baking entertainment podcast, Knead To Know, which releases every week in partnership with HRN. In 2025, she will launch the first-ever baking TV network, the Bold Baking Network, on connected television (CTV) and free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platforms dedicated to educating and entertaining home bakers 24/7.

For further information please contact:
Seth Burroughs
Xcel Brands
[email protected]