Bhav Patel is one of toy retail’s rising stars. A member of ToyNews’ 30 under 30, he opened his first toy shop in Barnet in 2005 and will expand his Toy Galaxy empire to six stores this year. He also owns a bike shop. Lewis Tyler asks about expansion, customer service and product selection…
How did you get started? I was exposed to the toy industry from a young age because my parents had toy shops. I opened up my first store in Barnet in 2005, with a bit of help from my parents, obviously, and I started my company from there.
How does toy and bike retailing compare? With toys you definitely have to focus on the local demographics. Competition is so rife – now one of the major competitors is the supermarkets, so that’s a key point, and you always have to look and see if there is an Argos or Toys R Us about. A small town also doesn’t require more than a couple of toy shops, so it is a lot harder to pick out a location than it is in any other industry. I will spend a considerable amount of time in a location just seeing who is buying what at the potential competition. Based on that, you can gauge what kind of traffic you could create.
How closely do you tailor your product line-up depending on the area where you’re trading? It does differ quite significantly. Certain things I can sell by the boxes in London areas which will not sell at all in my Oxford store. It really goes on trial and error and using EPoS systems really helps me move stock around. We tend to do stock rotations in two to three days, so low selling items will be sent to the shops where they will sell, and vice versa.
What other advantages do you get from having a network of stores? The biggest advantage is the stock rotation. In terms of buying it does help as you’re able to test an item or a new range, and if it works really well you can potentially roll it out to other stores.
How many toy shops will you have after the current expansion? Two more are due to open in the next month, which will take me to six toy stores. I actually thought I was quite slow off the mark – there are some locations which I would love to get into but unfortunately the opportunity has not come up, or somebody else has got in there. It’s not my intention to ever go into an area where someone else is trading – especially if it’s an independent, although if it were a national I wouldn’t mind so much.
probably my primary source of it, to be able to not over stock. By bringing stock down and raising the capital allows me to inject that money into a potential new store. You do run the risk of running out of things, but obviously when you’re ordering little but often it allows you to do it in a very safe way.
It’s not my intention to ever move into an area where
someone else is trading – especially an independent.
How have you managed to expand the business?
I have been quite stringent in terms of my business plan and I’ve been careful to not do anything that might jeopardise my cash flow, which I’ve tried to build up over the years. Using current stock situations is
Do you think there’s room out there for more indie toy shops? You just have to have your ear to the ground. In the current market it is very difficult, and it’s always going to be down to the landlords. However, in this climate it is easier to negotiate a good deal on rent.
What’s your retail philosophy? We compete against the nationals by offering a very good range at a good price – one where our customers won’t go to a national. That way we’re repaying our customers and it gives us more incentives to keep those ranges and those lines. There are brands out there which independent stores sell and focus on which the nationals don’t, and those are what offers us the larger margins. Margin is everything.
The customer service we provide is fantastic. We have families coming in and when staff interact with them on a first name basis it really does make a big difference and I think that’s primarily why customers have been good to us. I think they also understand that we do our best to remain price competitive and that’s why they stay loyal to us.