I was going to headline this week’s Blog “I predict a riot”, but what’s been happening here in the UK this week is really no laughing matter – especially for any toy retailers located in the towns and cities that have been affected. The British Retail Consortium advised retailers in risk areas to consider shutting their stores early, and it can’t be much fun spending the evening wondering if your shop is going to be trashed or looted by these mindless thugs. Although for any international readers, please don’t believe many of the things being written on social media about the so-called riots (especially by wannabe Bond villain in training Elon Musk) – the UK isn’t facing “civil war,” and there are no ‘legitimate concerns’ behind the atrocious behavior of a tiny uneducated minority. A few lowlife racists have been acting up, looting sausage rolls from Greggs and knock-off Crocs, and the good people of the UK have rightly come together to tell them to pack it in. Nevertheless, it’s a worry for retailers, as it must be affecting footfall and consumer mood in certain parts of the country, not to mention the genuine concerns for the safety of the people who work in retail stores. We certainly don’t need any of this nonsense right now.
Away from misbehaving miscreants, mergers and acquisitions have dominated the toy community headlines this week. Vivid Goliath has announced that it will be taking over as the UK & Eire distributor for the PlayMonster portfolio from January next year. I have a sneaking suspicion that PlayMonster won’t be the only international toy company looking at how best to approach the UK market and deciding that having a dedicated operation based here doesn’t currently quite add up from a costing point of view. The UK may be the largest (or second largest) market in Europe by sales volume – but doing business with the UK has become logistically more complicated since Brexit. Throw in crazy container rates which nobody budgeted for at the start of the year, warehousing costs going through the roof in some areas, plus the competitive nature of retail pricing and terms negotiations in the UK market, and you have a perfect storm of factors which don’t make it easy for suppliers to turn a healthy profit right now (especially those with a sizeable headcount). That said, for the vast majority, the size of the prize still makes the UK a pivotal market that toy companies can’t afford to ignore – they just need to work out the best way to tackle it.
Over in the US, Mary Couzin’s People of Play (POP) operation has merged with the Toy Association. This brings all of POP’s assets and events, including the Chicago Toys & Games Fair and the Bloom Report, into the Toy Association’s portfolio, while Mary will become part of the Toy Association’s senior leadership team. This strikes me as a great tie-up which benefits both parties, and we wish them all well.
Back in the UK, following weeks of speculation, it has finally been announced that Hunter Price has acquired eCommerce specialist retailer BargainMax. It’s a bold move and it will certainly be interesting to see how it all pans out. I had quite a few calls after the news broke yesterday, and there seem to be a lot of questions from people in the trade about how the new structure will work. I can tell you that current CEO Alex Woolfstein, along with his experienced toy buying team of Neil Mitchell and Emma Carden, will be staying with the business. Also, BargainMax has been bought as a going concern – so all outstanding debts will be taken care of (unlike a recent acquisition in the party channel, where I understand debts accrued before the takeover are not being honoured).
Read the rest here.
