allegedly...
Watching the BBC news one evening, a familiar face suddenly appeared onscreen. It turns out that the eighteen year old lad who got lost for several days in the Australian outback and was thankfully found just in the nick of time is the son of licensing stalwart Claire Derry. What a nightmare few days that must have been for her, but thank goodness there was a happy ending to the story....
Tesco has allegedly made employees at its distribution centre in Dublin wear arm-mounted terminals which track how efficiently individuals unload and scan goods, providing them with a grade in the process. Spending time in the bathroom or getting a quick drink apparently lowers the productivity score....
The early part of the year has unfortunately seen several UK retail businesses call in the administrators, including high-profile names such as HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster. Although they’re not toy accounts per se, there is still a potential knock-on effect to consider: the challenges currently being faced by the retail market in general, and the High Street in particular, has lead to suggestions that banks are tightening lending to retail-dependent suppliers, which could have a significant impact on growing toy companies....
Thankfully, the UK retail sector isn’t all doom and gloom by any means. Allegedly understands that value retailer B+M Bargains is looking to expand into Europe, having enjoyed a hugely successful 2012. The Entertainer’s global expansion plans also appear to be reaching fruition, with Pakistan and Dubai the most likely destinations to be chosen for inaugural openings. And then, of course, there is Toys R Us. In an interview which UK MD Roger Mclaughlan gave to Retail Week just before Christmas, he rather boldly stated that he wanted TRU to become the largest toy retailer in the UK. Feel free to insert your own comment here....
Toy Fair season always manages to throw up a stream of amusing anecdotes. During my trip to Hong Kong, I particularly enjoyed the story of the person who decided to take a power nap in the back office between meetings, and found the most comfortable position was to lay his head on his arm. Unfortunately, he chose his watch arm to lie on, with the result that when he emerged back into the showroom, the imprint of his watch face on his forehead rather gave the game away to his colleagues....
Back in the UK, Flying Toys’ David Rawlings had something of a mixed Spring Fair. He was
74 Toyworld
presented with a surprise cake by the organisers to celebrate his 35th year at the show, which is a tremendous achievement. But when I caught up with him on the Monday of the Fair, he looked like he had gone five rounds with David Haye – or maybe even got into a really strong disagreement with a buyer over pricing. The truth was marginally less sensational; a mishap on set-up day saw him fall off a chair, resulting in a deep cut to his face which required 8 stitches. I can’t wait to see his risk assessment form next year: Hazard – chair. Steps taken to avoid hazard – don’t stand on it and lean over....
One of the major talking points of Spring Fair week was the impending departure of Greg Saint from show organiser i2i events. There is no doubt that Greg is well liked and respected by the toy community at the show, and several people seemed a little unsettled to hear that he would be moving on. It appears that i2i is in the process of reorganising its senior management structure, and we’ll bring you details of the reshuffle in due course....
There are a few other people who have recently moved on from their previous roles, including Simon Cox (Turner), David Snow (Imagination Games), Melanie Beer (Hallmark) and Alex Kovacevic (Goldfish and Bison). We also hear that Jon Owen will be leaving Hit Entertainment when his current contract expires in a few months time. We’ll keep you posted as to where and when they all pop up.....
My favourite quote of Toy Fair season also doubles up as the ultimate put-down of a product: when you hear someone – no names, no pack drill – say the words “it even failed to job well,” you know it was a bad range....
Allegedly was recently contacted by Linked-in, with the slightly surprising news that my profile was in the top 1% of those viewed in 2012. I was fleetingly impressed, until just about everyone else posted the same thing on Twitter/Facebook. My rudimentary grasp of mathematics suggests we may all have been misled somewhat. Not one of the finer examples of marketing genius you’ll see this year. The funny thing is that I am hardly what you would describe as active on Linked-in to begin with, so if mine is indeed one of the 1% most viewed profiles, I’d hate to think how apathetic the other 99% must be....
Rumours have been circulating amongst the American toy community suggesting that Wal Mart will be cutting its toy sku count back this
year. The last time Wal-Mart took this approach (three years ago) the results were apparently not good for either the retail giant or its suppliers, so understandably there are a few nervous American toy companies right now, waiting for confirmation of this year’s selections. Indeed, in possibly related news, Wal Mart has apparently faced its worst sales start to a month in seven years according to internal e-mails recently reprinted online. “In case you haven’t seen a sales report, February MTD (month-to-date) sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal- Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in an e-mail to other executives on February 12th. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my seven years with the company”....
Toy World would like to offer its congratulations to Vivid’s Emma Weber and her husband Andy on the birth of their daughter Alice in February – like all good babies, Alice did her best to retain the element of surprise and unpredictability by arriving a few days early, to coincide with her parents second wedding anniversary....
Finally, a mention for TK Maxx’s Children’s Buying Director Grant Groome, who is undertaking a gruelling 100km Sahara Trek to raise money for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day. As if the trek itself isn’t arduous enough, Grant has agreed to dress as a different children’s character each day, with costumes kindly donated by Rubies (hopefully suitably embarrassing ones). TK Maxx has been the main retail sponsor of Red Nose Day for the past 8 years, raising over £10m along the way, so any toy suppliers who would like to support Grant in his endeavours can do so via his web page
http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/ grantgroome. We’ll be posting pictures of Grant in his various desert disguises in due course – as you can see from the picture below, it looks as though they didn’t exactly have to twist his arm to go along with the whole ‘dressing up’ theme.
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