Page 7 - Toy & Hobby Retailer Magazine Mar-Apr 2019

NEWS
FROM THE NEWS DESK
Minis make comeback for Christmas
TOP CLICKS
MOST VIEWED STORIES ON TOYHOBBYRETAILER.COM.AU DURING THE PAST MONTH
1MGA ENTERTAINMENT COMING TO AUSTRALIA February is set to see the first Australian MGA Entertainment office open. Chairman and CEO of MGA Entertainment, Isaac Larian, revealed the plans on LinkedIn in November and announced that Sapienza Salerno was chosen as the managing director of the Australian arm.
2MOOSE MOVES ON WORLDS APART Australian toy business, Moose Toys, acquired UK toy business, Worlds Apart, in November. Worlds Apart had been recognised for its work on popular properties such as Ready Beds and Scruff-a- Luvs. Moose acquired the business to bolster its European expansion plans.
IN reply to Woolworths’ Christmas Pop-Out collectibles, major supermarket chain, Coles, brought back its popular Little Shop collectibles in December with a Christmas twist.
The Little Shop Christmas Edition, replaced well-known miniature versions of popular brands with Coles brand Christmas products such as mince-pies, pavlova, crackers, a gingerbread biscuit and a limited-edition collectible Coles gingerbread ice-cream.
Similarly to the previous campaign, customers had to spend $30 to receive a collectible.
Coles’ chief operating officer, Greg Davis, said that due to the response to the first Little Shop, Coles wanted to surprise customers with a festive run of the campaign.
“We were blown away with customer feedback to Little Shop when it launched in July this year so we wanted to bring customers a little extra as a surprise this Christmas.
“The range is made up of mini replicas of some of our most popular Christmas products like pavlova, mince pies, Christmas crackers and a limited edition mini of our famous Coles gingerbread ice-cream.
“We want[ed] to create a little extra fun at Coles this Christmas and surprise and delight customers at the check-out,” he said.
The campaign was scheduled to run until close-of-business on Christmas Eve, however, Coles ran out of the collectibles by
20 December. ❉
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AMAZON AUS REVEALS WHICH TOY WAS TOP-SELLER IN BLACK FRIDAY SALES
Catch doubles Chadstone store to meet demand
AUSTRALIAN online retailer, Catch, doubled the shoppers get on top of their Christmas shopping size of its Chadstone pop-up store to meet consumer early, with great brands at Australia’s greatest demand during the busy Christmas period. prices, across beauty, tech, fashion, toys and
Housed in the ex-Toys R Us site in the shopping more.”
Amazon Australia held its first Australian Black Friday sales on
23 November and revealed which products were the best-sellers in the event. The Nintendo Switch came
in as one of the most popular items, while the most popular selling toy was the Fortnite Edition of Monopoly.
centre, the pop-up expanded its floor space from 500sqm to 1000sqm and increased the number of products from the top 500 sellers to
the top 1000.
Catch Group CEO, Nati Harpaz, said that the response
to the store had been so overwhelming, that at times, Catch had to control the crowds.
“[We were] so thrilled with the success of our pop-up store that we doubl[ed] the size.
“We had so many people visiting our store that we sometimes had to control the crowds. [As we entered] the busiest shopping season of
the year, we hope[d] we [helped]
The pop-up store traded until the end of January. ❉
5
VIVID ACQUIRED
AND SET TO RELEASE ENTIRELY NEW GAMES LINE FOR 2019
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business reborn from the ashes of Toys R Us (TRU) – made itself at home in 600 Kroger stores in November. Geoffrey’s Toy Box sold TRU house brands at the grocery retailer’s stores.
GEOFFREY’S TOY
BOX TO LAND IN 600
STORES
Geoffrey’s Toy Box – the
Toy and games company, Goliath, acquired independent toy and game business, Vivid Toy Group from Privet Capital. In partnership with Pressman, Goliath and Crown & Andrews games portfolios, Vivid is set to release a entirely new games range in 2019.
MARCH / APRIL 2019 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER 7