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11 years and counting …it’s the Friday Blog!

Published on: 2nd September 2022

Let’s start with some good news this week: according to the latest NPD research, specialist toy retailers represent the fastest growing retail channel for purchasing toys in the UK so far in 2022. Even better, ‘Toy Specialists’ is now the joint largest channel along with online-only retailers, accounting for 30% of all toy sales by value in the first half of the year. It seems that shoppers are heading back to specialist toy shops on the High Street and retail parks, with a marked move away from internet shopping, which is tracking -20% down in the same period. No disrespect to the online retailers, grocers and major multiples, but I see this as positive news for the UK toy community – personally, I feel a balanced toy market is a healthy market.

Of course, it’s important to keep these numbers in perspective: the shine may have come off online sales in the short term, but it’s far too soon to talk about the bubble bursting, especially as so much can change in Q4. The same could be said of the performance of the grocers and some of the major accounts – ok, one major account in particular. They all still have the capability to deliver strong sales numbers, and we may yet see them come into their own over the festive season. But right now, it feels that the strengths of the specialists – in-depth product knowledge, customer service, flexibility, the ability to jump on trends quickly, passion and focus – align with what many consumers appear to be looking for in their shopping experience.

Let’s hope that the specialists continue to thrive, and that the looming energy crisis doesn’t derail their momentum. The energy price cap rise in October is set to be a nightmare for many consumers – but even more so for many small businesses, as they aren’t covered by the cap. Companies and retailers coming to the end of fixed-price energy contracts are facing massive increases, and a few have gone public this week to illustrate just how outrageous the new tariffs will be. Department store Beales’ energy bills have soared from £45k to £150k, while Sambro CEO Paul Blackaby revealed that his company’s gas bill will be going from £35k to £265k and his electric bill from £59k to £297k. Those figures are nothing short of horrendous, and they are typical of the kind of increases that many businesses will face – small businesses in particular must be extremely concerned about their ability to absorb increases of this magnitude.

A number of the major energy providers are said to have asked some companies to put down huge deposits to cover bills in advance, amid fears that the crisis will cause many small businesses to collapse. Reports suggest that retailers with low credit scores are being asked for up to three months spend as a deposit. There has already been talk of shopping centres and individual shops considering shortening their opening hours to conserve energy, and let’s not even get into the possibility of energy rationing over the winter. As the Beales CEO Tony Brown said this week: “The government cannot keep its head in the sand – it needs to take affirmative action.”

But don’t worry, we have a new PM coming into office next week, so I am sure she has a cunning plan to tackle the situation – even if she has been highly reluctant to share anything up to this point. There has been some vague talk about cutting business rates, but a lot of potential measures have seemingly been ruled out, while very few tangible solutions have been ruled in thus far. I’m sure the fact she used to work for Shell will have no bearing on her doing the right thing for consumers and businesses…no bearing at all.

Anyway, back to far happier matters… the 11th birthday September issue of Toy World landed on desks and online this week – and it’s an absolute corker! 180 pages packed with a wealth of essential information – and it also comes with a special 80 page pull-out supplement covering the Games & Puzzles category. Grab a brew and the nice biscuits and dive in… I promise you won’t regret it. I say this every year, but to everyone who continues to support what we’re doing…thank you, thank you, thank you.

You can access the September issue here and the Games & Puzzles Supplement is online here too.

The September edition also contains our largest-ever extended Licensing World section, which includes a comprehensive preview of BLE, which will open its doors in just over two weeks’ time. If you’re heading to the show, the preview will give you plenty of inspiration as to which brand owners you need to see during your trip. In addition, we’ll also be updating the Licensing.biz website – which is now part of the Toy World stable – with all the latest licensing-related news in the run-up to the show, and during the event itself. So, whether you are a licensee, retailer or any other business with an interest in the licensing arena, head on over to www.licensing.biz to catch up on all the latest news and sign up to receive our regular email alerts directly into your inbox.

We’ve got a busy few weeks coming up – this weekend I will be heading to Cardiff to join the WWE team and invited guests at Clash at the Castle – the first major WWE UK Stadium show in 30 years. I’m looking forward to the spectacle, and hopefully there will be time to visit the Smyths pop-up to see the WWE Rig in all its glory, before it heads off on its nationwide tour. Then on Monday I am planning to visit the Autumn Fair – so if you are going to be at the NEC and want to catch up, feel free to drop me a line. It will certainly be interesting to see how the toy section shapes up this year…

Finally, as we’re celebrating 11 years of publishing Toy World magazine, that also means I have been writing this Blog for 11 years. It’s getting harder to find amusing, eye-catching SEO-friendly headlines I have never used in any of the 500+ Blogs I’ve written previously (I wonder how how last week’s ‘happy ending’ title ranked on SEO…). And now with the launch of Licensing.biz, I will be writing two separate Blogs each week (The first Licensing Blog is online here). But I get so much positive feedback that to be honest, writing the Blog is never a chore. I’ll keep building it if you keep coming…