Brian, who was head of buying for a decade, has rejoined the family company after a brief stint elsewhere. 

Alan Simpson, Toytown’s managing director, has announced that his son Brian has decided to return to SMF Toytown, his family’s company, after leaving it in April this year.

In a statement, Alan said: “I am delighted to report that Brian Simpson will rejoin SMF on 1st October this year. Brian had taken up a position in mid-April as a senior buyer for a major manufacturer in the food industry based in Northern Ireland. He has really enjoyed his time there and has thrived over the last few months, but came to realise that his heart was really at Toytown, the family owned business he joined just over 10 years ago.

This enables me to restructure the management of the company and to take a major step back from the helm of SMF after 42 years in the toy industry. I look forward to beginning a period of ‘semi retirement’. I have every confidence that we now have a team in place to drive the business forward, having enjoyed a very positive period since lockdown conditions were imposed in March 2020. We enter the final few important months of trading in 2021 with so much uncertainty threatening to affect so many areas of retail, but I am extremely confident that SMF is in a great position to deal with whatever curveball is thrown our way.”