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Quotes from the @toyworldmag Twitter feed:
independent we’re frustrated by how diffi cult it was to be seen on stands and how we were quickly pushed aside if a big retailer happened to be on the stand at the same time. In May this year we attended our fi rst Toymaster show at Harrogate, which was so much more refreshing. There the suppliers generally seemed to want our business and we were able to get on with placing some good show orders. We’ll continue to attend London Toy Fair, and aim to head to shows further afi eld, but the one must-attend event will always be the Toymaster Show. Overall I think the independent retail sector
is struggling. The suppliers are not supporting indies as well as they could, and just seem to roll over when the multiple retailers demand exclusives or damage a product range by offering ridiculous discounts. Kids don’t get it, they trust us and want to spend their money with us because they like what we do and don’t understand it when we tell them we can’t get the latest thing because a supplier has signed a deal with another company. That said, our ideal customer will continue to shop with us because we offer them something they can’t get elsewhere – expertise and strong customer service. It’s surprising how many of them have asked how to complain to the big brands when they offer these early launches with big grocers - it simply cheapens the brands that tie in with the non-toy specialists. Of course, we are focusing totally on the toy industry now and believe that our customer service and expertise will help us to emerge as a strong company within the industry, but we are also aware of the importance of operating in multiple channels to ensure sustainability in an ever-changing marketplace. We are delighted with our Christmas sales so
far, at times it seemed a bit slow to get started, but over the past few weeks sales have exceeded our expectations online and in-store. We have hit every target over the past few months and have been particularly pleased with sales of Action Figures, which is a new addition to our business. Pillow Pets have also been a great product, which offer a decent return. We had to re-order after less than a week of introducing them, sales were so high. They are now a permanent addition to our product range! We are looking forward to having more stable
levels of Lego Friends available to us – which has been in such high demand this year. We also expect our Arts & Crafts ranges to grow as people look for more entertainment for their money, so Hama, Depesche and Style Me Up should work well for us, particularly as they offer a variety of price points within their ranges. We’re also looking forward to seeing what
Character has to offer under the Adventure Time licence; we just hope those products can live up to the TV show.
44 Toyworld ToyWorld_TalkingShop_Header2 19/12/12 12:57:11 - 1 - (Proce
Stuart Grant
buying director, The Entertainer We’ve had a really strong year and shown like-for-like growth in our stores and online. We’ve opened 14 new stores this year, so we’ve been quite shielded from the outside world; it’s been a very tough year, with NPD reporting profi ting decline in the general market, so we can’t complain. We had a great September and a really
strong October. November was softer, but still good; it’s been tougher because of the level of discounting, which has been stronger than previous years, with 20% off at Toys R Us, and 3-for-2 at Argos and Tesco – it’s been a very competitive month. The weekend just gone was really deemed as the watershed point as it was pay day; people got their money in the bank so went shopping for Christmas presents, and so the discounts by Tesco etc. have been crippling for the industry. We have been very disciplined in holding our nerve; the 3-for-2 and 20% promotions weren’t planned promotions, they were tactical in-fl ight
decisions by other retailers, whereas we’ve stuck to our original promotional plan, which is how we tend to work. It’s still really
hard to tell what the top sellers are; the Innotab is phenomenal, whereas the LeapPad is very price-driven, so that’s been tough. Furby is off the charts; it’s absolutely the runaway for the industry this year – whatever gets delivered I will sell. Hasbro has managed to achieve real chase mentality this year; stock ran out for two weeks which created pent-up demand. When Furby launched fi rst time round its second year sales doubled the fi rst, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens again – there’s also going to be a Furby 2 and lower price point Furby coming that I predict will be up there in the top sellers. With the Turtles launch weekend just gone,
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