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Duncan Conner ToyWorld_TalkingShop_Header2 19/12/12 12:57:11 - 1 - (Proce Stuart Grant
buying director, The Entertainer It’s tough; the market has slowed right down since Easter. There’s a lack of
momentum from the brands that had been driving
footfall and sales, and things have cooled off recently. There’s nothing new out in the market; even Moshi is plateauing and Lego is struggling. Art and craft is a back-end category for us; like games they sell best at Christmas when the TV adverts come on. There’s nothing really standing out, but Flair’s Cool Cardz does well for us. Electronic learning is going well, which has been driven largely by the InnoTab and LeapPad, and we’re in line with what we would expect for this time of year. We’re also doing well on software because of the amount of hardware that’s been released into the market in the last two years. We’re not big on wheeled toys; mostly we do well with ride-ons, with the dry and sunny weather driving sales at the moment. There aren’t any standouts for science and nature; things like chemistry sets are again more of a Christmas product for us with TV advertising and the higher price points. Come Christmas we do well on Interplay, Trends and John Adams lines. One category I must mention is Boys, in
particular we’re seeing Turtles do very well; it’s just been building since it hit terrestrial TV, I definitely think this is set to make a difference this year. Also, Pre-school has been really
interesting. You’ve got Doc McStuffins, which is in high demand due to stock issues. There’s Tree Fu Tom, which is solid. The Woolly and Tig plush is on pre-order; we get our stock in June so we’re hoping that the 6-8 weeks of pent-up demand will drive sales. And also, Something Special has been getting incredible exposure with Mr Tumble’s live shows and DVDs etc, so there’s a lot of demand for that right now; Tesco has been performing really well with their exclusive so hopefully we can emulate that.
30 Toyworld
Bus Stop Toy Shop, North Ayrshire We’ve been open nearly seven years now. I opened the shop because I grew up around retail; my father owned a grocery store, and the sea-side town we’re based in didn’t have a toy shop so I saw the opportunity. We’re on the up, so fingers crossed we continue to grow; it’s been a tough few years, but we’re now starting to see some green shoots. On art and craft we stock a wide range of John Adams which does very well for us; the kits come at pick-up price points and make ideal small gifts. We’re also about to take on more Hama, which is coming back; it was a success last time so hopefully this time will be just as strong. We also do little bits and bobs from Fiesta Crafts; our art and craft range isn’t huge, but we do alright. We also do a lot of John Adams for science and nature; their science kits do really well for us, as well as their construction robot and vehicle making sets. We steer away from electronic learning toys, and we only stock a few wheeled toys in the Summertime. Our stand-out range at the moment has to be Skylanders, as I’m sure is the case for pretty much every toy shop in the land! Meccano does very well, and Moshi Monsters is still going fairly strong. We do very well on action figures such as Transformers and Spider-man etc. Nanoblocks does very well; they’re a real challenge and are fantastic. Increasingly, our hobby ranges are getting stronger, such as Games Workshop’s Warhammer and trading cards like Pokémon.
Ian Moore
Howleys Toymaster, Weymouth Business has been steady so far this year; high street trade has been tough but our online business has been very good. The price cutting online has been very fierce recently, so we always need to be offering something different and a high level of service. Art and craft is one of my favourite departments - we have some fantastic ranges from Galt, Gizmos, KSG, Flair and others, and they always sell well. We always have some great promotion lines, so this keeps customers coming back. VTech and LeapFrog are always reliable sellers; we are introducing some other brands into the electronic learning category this year so we are looking forward to seeing how these sell.
The poor weather has meant wheeled toys have suffered, but we are hoping for this category to improve with the good Summer that is coming! Mookie has a great range of wheeled toys this year; MV’s range also looks like it will be excellent. Science and nature is also a good category with Insect Lore selling very well. John Adams and Thames & Kosmos have also been very good.
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