retailinterview
The Entertainer heads overseas
Aiming to build on the phenomenal success it has enjoyed in the UK in recent years, The Entertainer is now looking to expand its horizons in the international market. Toy World spoke to Duncan Grant about the company’s plans. John Baulch reports.
arrived at that point, so we’re ready to take the next step, which is finding the right people to work with, people who share our goals and ethos.
When did you first come up with the idea of expanding overseas? Around 18 months ago we started to receive unsolicited emails from people in a variety of countries all asking about the possibility of taking an Entertainer franchise. After politely rejecting about half a dozen different enquiries, we decided it was something we should look into.
So what do you think prompted the initial enquiries? Why now? I think it follows on from our rebranding exercise three years ago and, more importantly, opening our store in the Westfield Shopping Centre. Westfield attracts a huge number of international visitors, some of whom are likely to be retailers themselves. The Entertainer had probably never been on their radar before, but now it was, and they must have seen something they believed could be adapted to work in their own countries.
So what was the next step? As a business, we put a lot of time and effort into understanding exactly what running an international business entails. In Spring last year I undertook a number of trips abroad to assess potentially viable markets: I initially visited Dubai, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. It was my aim to find out if there was a gap for The Entertainer in each territory; were there retailers there who were doing a good job and giving the consumers what they needed? Almost without exception I came back feeling that there was an opportunity for us: of course, there were already toy retailers present, but not offering the sort of proposition which The Entertainer could.
48 Toyworld
So what would The Entertainer bring that’s currently missing? We want a franchise operation to deliver all of the key attributes we’re known for in the UK: in-store theatre, excitement, promotions, value, e-commerce, shop fitting and marketing expertise, staff training and recruitment – the whole package. We have spent the past six months looking in detail at how to translate The Entertainer format into something which would work in other markets. It’s imperative that we offer the equivalent of the UK experience in each territory in which we open. We now feel that we’ve
So what sort of people are you looking to partner with? It’s important that they have retail experience. Some may already be working in toy retail and looking to expand, or feel that rebranding to The Entertainer will allow them to develop their business more effectively. Others may be strong in another retail sector and looking to apply their strengths to the toy market. They need to be ambitious and have good financial backing: we want to tap the full potential of each market, not just open a couple of stores here and there. We’ll be talking to interested parties over the next few weeks and months; we have set ourselves the goal to open in at least two territories in 2013. But we won’t sign any deals just for the sake of it; we have to be convinced that we’ve found the right partner.
I expect that some markets won’t know what’s hit them... We don’t have a crystal ball. We look carefully at new ideas, and we’re happy to take a risk to move the company forward. But we want to do that in a controlled way, and make sure we get behind what works. If we get it right, the potential for growth is huge. We have 78 branches of The Entertainer in the UK, and we will open more. But obviously there is a ceiling, so we need to look overseas if we want to break through that ceiling.
From left to right: Stuart Grant, Duncan Grant, Goofy and Gary Grant
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