allegedly...
In a surprise move, Mothercare chief executive Simon Calver announced his resignation last month. He is generally recognised to have smartened up certain aspects of the Mothercare business – notably its online presence – but sadly the share price continues to languish in the doldrums, and ultimately, it would appear that the numbers have finally proved his downfall. Whoever takes over the role permanently certainly has some big issues to address. Mothercare subsequently appointed former Shop Direct boss Mark Newton-Jones as its interim chief executive. Mark’s tenure started at the end of last month, giving Mothercare time to search for a permanent leader to help revive its fortunes....
Allegedly understands that Jon Tilley has joined Chicco as customer development director, Paul Chandler has left Hornby to join licensing agency Fluid World and Will Abigail has recently left his buying role at Jarrold of Norwich after four years with the department store....
Toys R Us has announced that it will be laying off nearly 200 people at its New Jersey HQ. No news yet as to whether the UK office will be affected by the cost-cutting measure, but hopefully it will escape unscathed on this occasion. Disney Interactive has also announced around 700 redundancies worldwide as the division attempts to stem significant losses....
On the subject of significant losses, Morrisons’ results saw the grocer post a hefty £176m loss for the year to the end of February, in stark contrast to last year’s healthy profits. A sale of the Kiddicare chain – whose performance was quoted as “disappointing” – has been mooted as one of the potential consequences of the proposed restructure of the company....
Game has lost a landmark legal case over not paying its rent while the company was in administration. Game has been ordered to pay £3m after a consortium of landlords argued that rent should be paid on what they described as a “pay as you trade” basis for stores that were still
110 Toyworld
operating, even though the owner had filed for administration. Undoubtedly there will be major ramifications for any other retailer looking to employ this tactic in future (i.e. enter administration the day after their quarterly rent bill is due in order to avoid paying the bill). In fairness, it does seem sensible to close this particular legal loophole....
During a recent shareholder’s conference call, CEO Bob Iger revealed that Disney will be producing a sequel to The Incredibles and is also planning a third movie in the Cars franchise. Release dates have not yet been confirmed for either movie. Although not a huge success from a licensing perspective the first time round, The Incredibles remains one of Pixar’s most underrated movies as far as Allegedly is concerned, and the next instalment promises to be well-worth waiting for, especially if Holly Hunter is back as the voice of Mrs Incredible....
On the subject of Disney movies, it’s now becoming clear just how big a merchandising opportunity was missed with Frozen at the tail end of last year. The movie has now taken over $1b at the box office and is firmly on track to become the highest- grossing animated feature of all time. Online forums suggest that the average waiting time to meet the Frozen princesses Elsa and Anna at the Epcot theme park in Florida is now frequently more than five hours (while other well-known Disney characters apparently stand around forlorn, with no queues waiting to meet them). So where is all the Frozen merchandise? At the time of the film’s launch in December, you would have struggled to find much of a high street retail presence beyond the obligatory Disney store display. If retailers didn’t get behind the movie and licensees seem to have misjudged its true potential, this almost certainly stems from the fact that Disney didn’t exactly seem that excited by the opportunity themselves. Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, as was evidenced by many retailers complaining that they couldn’t get hold of sufficient quantities of Despicable Me merchandise to meet demand last Summer,
despite the fact that few had placed decent orders in the first place. But even allowing for the unpredictability of licensed merchandise sales, it does seem that this one slipped through the net somewhat. By all accounts licensees are now frantically attempting to ramp up production in order to meet the pent-up consumer demand, and the franchise will almost certainly go on to become an evergreen brand. But it does illustrate that sometimes even the most successful brand owners can miss a real gem in their midst, especially when they have such a broad portfolio of properties....
YouTube is rumoured to be working on a brand new version of its site designed specifically for children aged 10 and under. It has been suggested that the new site will feature content specifically created for children, free from inappropriate videos or comments they could potentially encounter on the full version of YouTube. Google is said to have approached developers to discuss generating new child-orientated content for the site, although no timescale has been suggested yet for the launch of the project. Whether children can be weaned off the main YouTube site is another matter entirely, but if this new venture does get off the ground it will potentially provide another viable way for children’s content providers to reach their target audience....
The treasury has unveiled a new £1 coin, which will be introduced into circulation in 2017. The new coin – reminiscent of the old ‘threepenny bit’, if like Allegedly you are old enough to remember that particular historical artefact – is said to be the hardest in the world to copy, and its introduction is partly aimed at combating the 45m fake one pound coins said to currently be in circulation. Which is all well and good, but what about the hundreds of thousands of supermarket trolleys and vending machines which will either have to be adapted to accept the new version, or scrapped altogether? Now might be a good time to invest in shares of companies which manufacture supermarket trolleys or alternatively, to set up a scrap metal business. Any old iron?...
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112