Ahead of next week’s Spring Fair, Bhavika Pattni tells Sam Giltrow how the show is attracting a growing number of retailers looking to expand their offerings to include toys and games.
While the toy fairs in London and Nuremberg command huge visitor numbers from toy retailers, Spring Fair attracts many people from across a wide range of retail sectors including gifts, fashion and homewares.
The show’s Kids, Toys and Play section is proving increasingly popular among retailers such as garden centres and gift shops which are diversifying to include games and toys on their shelves.
Bhavika Pattni, key account director for show organiser Hyve Group, tells Toy World: “We know that toys are a gift item, so there’s that cross-over buying opportunity, and we also know that many shops are diversifying and want to have different ranges, so that is a really big factor for us.”
This year’s show, which runs from 5th-8th February at NEC Birmingham, will feature an array of toys, games, puzzles, high-tech gadgets and craft gifts. Bhavika says there is an increasing focus on sustainability, underlined by Hyve Group’s own personal pledge to be a sustainable company.
One of this year’s new exhibitors is SES Creative, which offers a wide range of sustainable crafting kits for kids, from fingerpaint and colouring pencils to chalk and playdough.
“We feel that our company ethos of designing and manufacturing products that are both extremely safe and environmentally responsible is a good fit for the visitors to Spring Fair, with all our products being made in the Netherlands,” says Damien Collett, head of Sales & country manager, UK & Ireland.
Orange Tree Toys, which offers a wide range of wooden toys, will also be exhibiting and is keen to showcase its new woodland animal range, Peter Rabbit TV range and a new Disney range as part of the D100 celebrations celebrating Disney’s centenary this year.
Click here to read the full interview, and to find out which toy companies are exhibiting at the NEC this year, see our Spring Fair Preview in the February issue of Toy World.
