BY YANN FRESNEL
The French toy market has so far this year delivered flat results. As of the end of August, volume is -5 percent and price +5 percent.
The main driver, the “Outdoor Toy” category, was strongly impacted by terrible weather in spring and, again, lousy weather in the West/North area in July (3 years in a row with bad spring) even if august was finally better and saw +21 percent in sales.
Inflation is going down compared to last year (+2,3 percent price increase). In addition, prices in energy and oil are finally decreasing.
Births are still decreasing (678 000 in 2023, down130 000 over 10 years). 2024 births have continued the trend, down 2.4 percent in the first 6 months.
Of 11 super categories tracked by CIRCANA, some categories are doing well:
Plush are doing very well and saw Olympics PARIS 2024 mascots plush selling 2.5 million units, especially in July and August (+41 percent)
Construction is still up (+24 percent in August) driven by Lego (Icons, speed champions or Star Wars) and as a result of the continuing Kidult trend.
Electronic Junior, smallest category tracked by CIRCANA is growing again in August (+12 percent)
TOP PRODUCTS:
Skyjo from Blackrock games (card game) is still number 1 as last year.
Pokémon has 6 products in in the top 10
Olympics PARIS 2024 mascot plush from Gipsy was number 4 in August.
TOY RETAIL:
La Grande Récré (133 shops + 3 new ones in 2024), bought by JOUE CLUB in 2023 is back to success showing double-digit growth for 2024 sales.
Smyths Toys is opening 3 new shops in 2024 and start to renovate old toy shops.
Joue Club is doing well in sales (+1.5 percent end August)
DISTRIBUTION:
Toy specialists and multi-specialists are still growing sales (main channel)
Online and hypermarkets/supermarkets are both down this year, by 5 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
LICENSING:
It has been a good year again with vigorous activity in licenses which are up overall, representing 25 percent of total toy sales.
The top licenses are Pokémon, Olympics, Paw Patrol, Marvel, Star Wars and Barbie. Barbie, however, has declined by 30 percent versus last year.
Some good blockbusters for children will be in theaters the holiday season, which could increase sales (Vaiana 2, Transformers or Sonic 3)
TRENDS:
Made in France” accounts for 14-15 percent of total sales (stable). Buyers are giving these products more visibility with their Fairs, media coverage, and space in Christmas catalogs.
Secondhand sales are growing (80 000 units sold in King Jouet, 10 percent of their shops are secondhand specialists and Joue Club has nearly all shops with second and corners, selling more than 100 000 units)
Kidult games are growing, representing 28 percent of total toy sales. The adults are buying regularly, and the average price is high. They have a unique space in Christmas catalogs (Games and puzzles, collectibles, and building with licenses).
Christmas buying should grow in value/child (+5 percent), more buying through physical shops and especially Toy specialists and more secondhand buying.
Yann Fresnel has 30 years experience selling toys to traditional and online retailers. His company, Toy Influence represents overseas toy companies in Europe and France.
Connect with him on LinkedIn, or email him at yann@toyinfluence.com.
