As the summer holidays draw to a close, the toy trade is beginning to gear up for the festive season. Outdoor toys are being cleared to create shelf space for the autumn winter stock which will soon be arriving – we’re buying up all the 30p bubble wands we can lay our hands on, as our granddaughter goes through them at a rate of knots.
And there’s some good news on the supply chain front – it seems that container rates are finally coming down again, a development which will be welcomed warmly across the toy industry. Toy companies had budgeted around the $3000 mark for containers at the start of the year, only to find themselves paying well over double that amount as we approached summer.
Of course, many suppliers had no option but to bite the bullet and ship stock at that rate, partly because they would have been fined for later deliveries by retailers if stock had not turned up on time, and partly because no-one could say with any degree of certainty when rates would come down – or even if they would come down at all this year. So, although it’s a great shame that this rebalancing didn’t happen a few months earlier, it’s definitely a case of ‘better late than never’. There will still be festive shipments arriving for a few months yet, so at least there is an opportunity to land those at a better rate than looked likely a few months ago.
If anyone is looking for a reliable freight company that has capacity and is offering short-term advantageous rates, I can recommend Warrant Group – the Warrant team were straight in touch to let us know when rates started to tumble, and they’re keen to help toy companies make the most of the current price swing – Stephen.garrity@warrant-group.com is the man to contact for the latest special deals and availability.
While freight cost pressure is easing, there are still numerous fiscal challenges for toy suppliers and retailers to navigate. Indeed, those challenges have resulted in the first major casualty of the year here in the UK, after IMC announced earlier this week that it had taken the difficult decision to close its UK operation. The IMC range will continue to be available to retailers in the UK and Ireland, either through the company’s FOB programme (managed by the Hong Kong office) or on DDP from the Spanish head office. Discussions are also taking place to appoint a partner to manage the UK independent & specialist channel for IMC moving forward, and we’ll bring you news of the new arrangement when it is all firmed up.
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