After a long, languid summer, everything feels like it has kicked up a gear – or indeed, several gears – this week. Kids are back at school, rush hour traffic is back to its frustrating worst, the number of ‘out of office’ notifications have dropped sharply – basically, normal service has (almost) resumed. And not before time either…
Here in the UK, we’ve had two Birmingham-based trade shows with a toy presence running concurrently – Autumn Fair and INDX. We visited both events and caught up with a good number of suppliers and retailers to hear how they’re feeling ahead of the Golden Quarter. I will be completely honest, I expected quite a lot of moaning and negativity about the general state of the trade. Inevitably we got a bit of that, but not as much as we had feared. A lot more people were looking forward rather than back, which is encouraging – and there is still a lot to play for in the coming months.
Retailers who attended both shows were there to splash a bit of cash – nobody was going mad, but there was little point in going all that way just to kick a few tyres and do some window shopping. On the whole, toy exhibitors at Autumn Fair were pleased to be mixed in with the general gift exhibitors – many had been asking for that change to be made, so it’s good to see the show organisers listening and reacting. It was INDX’s first show in its new September timeslot, and I certainly spoke to a few exhibitors who felt that it provided a good opportunity to not only secure top-up festive orders, but also to offer visitors a sneak peek at spring summer ‘25 lines.
Looking ahead to ’25, the LA previews are now underway. UK and international retailers and suppliers will be making their way to California next week and the week after, and long before Christmas sales have even got off the starting grid, the selection process will begin all over again. Sadly, I won’t be able to join the toy community in LA this time round – the dates unfortunately don’t quite work with other commitments we have (press week for our October issue, BLE etc). I won’t lie, I have had a few twinges of FOMO this week, but hopefully everyone will keep me up to date with what’s happening out west over the coming weeks.
There’s already plenty going on back here in the UK to set toy trade tongues wagging. Only a couple of hours ago, we announced that there have been significant changes at The Entertainer, with the retailer unveiling a renewed strategic focus on international expansion and a corresponding change of responsibilities amongst its top team. Geoff Sheffield will become commercial director, international to lead all commercial aspects of the international retail strategy and its execution, while a new group executive role of chief product officer has been introduced, bringing together the functions of buying, merchandising and marketing. Brian Proctor will join The Entertainer on Monday to take up this role, bringing a wealth of retail buying and trading experience, most notably through various directorships at TK Maxx. I also gather there’s more big news on the way from The Entertainer in the coming weeks – if anyone thought the business would be so pre-occupied with its Tesco rollout that it would pull back from opportunities in other areas, that notion is about to thoroughly disproved.
Read the rest here.
