As The Entertainer starts a new trial partnership in a selection of Tesco branches, Toy World met up with Gary Grant and Mark Campbell to find out more.
In 2022, the return to pre-pandemic everyday life glimpsed in the early part of the year has subsequently been derailed by economic turbulence and soaring prices on just about everything. The result, The Entertainer founder and executive chairman Gary Grant explained, was a softer start to Q4 than hoped, though there are silver linings. “Web sales are holding up extraordinarily well ,” he told us. “We’re seeing fewer transactions, but more than twice as many items in each basket.” CEO Mark Campbell added that a number of very strong Saturday performances from The Entertainer’s physical stores, combined with the excellent online business, indicate that Christmas started early again this year, perhaps driven, in part, by parents wanting to secure their kids’ presents before the big rise in energy bills really started to make itself felt.
Of course, The Entertainer’s new concession deal with Tesco offers consumers a new way to get their hands on top toys for Christmas, with a trial launch in 35 stores across the UK. The Entertainer will retain full oversight of product range, pricing and merchandising across the stores, and will run free-of-charge and all-year-round events, plus character visits for children of all ages. Mark and Gary told us the rollout had got off to a superb start.
“Tesco is an absolute delight to work with, and our values and culture are very similar,” enthused Gary. “The Tesco store managers have really embraced our Entertainer staff with candidness and flexibility, and we can all see that there’s something very exciting taking place.”
For now, though, it’s all eyes on the next few weeks: increasing the density of Tesco’s toy sales, expanding the range of toys on offer and improving the customer experience in-store to ensure this Christmas produces the supermarket’s best ever Toy category performance.
To find out more, read the full article, which appeared in the December edition of ToyWorld, here.
