years, I miss the passion that comes from working with design people every day. But on the retail side I thought when I boarded the plane that it’s going to be Toys R Us, its going to be very similar types of retailers but what you see over here is much different to what you might expect. The High Street can be an opinion leader with consumers because that’s where moms are walking by and they’re seeing what’s going on out there. Online shopping in some ways is ahead of the States in that the mobile usage over here is so much stronger. And how you communicate a company like Argos - the catalogue just doesn’t exist in the US because they’ve all gone under over the years. And so there’s a lot of nuances. Even Toys R Us and the way they do business and the way they are in the US, it’s two very different models and it’s been very interesting to learn the differences.
And grocery is very much different. In some ways the Wal-Marts and Targets in the US sold the ‘hard’ lines and have moved into grocery, whereas here in the UK it’s the opposite. So it’s fascinating to watch how each way is working. They’ll meet in
the middle at some point depending on where the profits lie, but ultimately it’s about satisfying your consumer and giving them a broader selection so they don’t have to make as many trips to the store.
And how about the independent trade here compared to the specialty trade in the US?
I think the independent trade is a lot stronger here. Because the High Street is a much more meaningful place to go shopping. We don’t have a dynamic like that in the States because it’s a one or two street thing that people get acclimated to shopping at. It’s great: I live in a little village and it was perhaps the biggest shift for me understanding the village dynamic as a city kid. But it’s a lot more personable, you learn about the brands you’re going to shop for in a different way. So it’s been interesting between the dynamics of the High Street and the dynamics of an Argos and then the shift of food retailers into mass market retailing.
So how has business been in 2011? First half of the year was great. You’ve seen
Barbie really respond well since it’s climb at the end of last year. Monster High has been phenomenal - we’ve really captured the imagination of girls in a great way, particularly the older girl outside the Barbie range - these are 8 or 9 year old girls who are gettin out of toys and into video games and we’ve been pleasantly surprised on the ages of the Monster High girl and the way they are learning about the brand through the books, which are a little bit older in the way they are written. And they’re online and finding out about it. And then the great partnerships: Disney: Cars 2 has been great and the product is selling very well. It’s not going to be Toy Story but it’s going to be fine. And I know the DVD is going to have a huge impact. It’s going to hit and the toys are going to fly and it will be a strong back half to the year for Cars 2. And the one we’ve been most pleasantly surprised about is Octonauts. We can’t make enough and its caught us a little bit by surprise, but what we get in this winter will be going straight out, so it’s a good problem to have. It’s nice to get a runner like that. It’s a very rich pre-school category this year.
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