Alliance Entertainment reported strong full-year growth in its sales of collectibles in its most recent fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, reflecting the investment it made in hiring at least seven Diamond Comic Distributors employees in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy filing last year (see “Alliance Hires Seven from Diamond”).
While the 45% growth rate in the category was impressive, the scale is still not close to the volume once sold by Diamond; the growth rate produced sales of $32 million for the year.
Alliance’s hiring of the Diamond employees puts it in a good position to capture sales formerly made by Diamond, but it’s competing with Ad Populum company Sparkle Pop LLC, which acquired the Diamond Select and comic and merch distribution assets of Diamond and is operating as Diamond Select Brands in conjunction with Ad Populum wholesaler Enesco. Other companies in the space include Entertainment Earth; and Universal Distribution, which bought Diamond’s game distributor Alliance Game Distributors and added the merch lines it had been carrying in Canada to its U.S. lines (see “Insider Talks: Angelo Exarhakos”).
While Alliance Entertainment acquired collectibles company Handmade by Robots last year, the growth in collectible sales was primarily in products sourced from other companies, according to CEO Jeffrey Walker in the conference call.
Litigation between Alliance Entertainment and Sparkle Pop is ongoing; Sparkle Pop sued over the hiring of Diamond employees and related issues (see “Sparkle Pop Amends Complaint”).
Overall sales for Alliance Entertainment, which makes the bulk of its sales in packaged media, were up 8% to $1.15 billion for the year, with net income of $13.1 million, down from $15.1 million in the previous year.
Source: ICV2
