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Never a Dull Moment by Nick Truss The only thing that never changes is that everything changes. Despite a significant calming of the waters, there is still plenty of chop ahead for toys. Industries worldwide are experiencing significant waves of layoffs, despite an allegedly tight labor market. This undoubtedly will make consumers more discerning with how and where they spend their income, causing everyone to feel deflated. It would seem post pandemic sales and hiring surges are coming home to roost in 2024. However, hope springs eternal, especially in the most whimsical of industries! We reached out to a handful of influential leaders in the sphere of toys to ask them some topical questions about the state of their companies, their event attendance plans for 2025, marketing strategies, and even this new-fangled AI business everyone’s always harping on about! When asked how sales have been for the year so far, Karalyne Ley, Founder and CEO of Bene World offered up some good news. “2024 has been a good year for Bene World Toys and our Bene Buddies/Toys With a Purpose line! We started working with some sales rep groups and are excited to bring our products to more stores in 2024!” Eric Parmeter, inventor of the smash hit Corners, has also had a boon year. “This past year has been filled with tremendous experiences, learning opportunities, and new relationships within the toy and game industry. Since releasing Corners Ring Toss on the market late last spring, I have experienced continued growth that I’ve been told is not so common among new inventions that come to market. I managed to sell out of my first container of product within months, and almost missed Christmas sales. It has been a great journey of learning the business and meeting amazing, supportive, and encouraging people throughout the industry. ” Connetix has had a strong 2024, so affirms their CEO and Creative Director Brea Brand. “We have been fortunate to have experienced strong sales coming into 2024. We’ve always placed a strong emphasis on building relationships with our global networks, which has seen significant growth in our retailer community and is forecasted to continue as we progress throughout the remainder of the year.” 24 tfe June 2024
General Manager at One For Fun, Mark Slusarz, continues the good news. “2024 is exceeding our expectations from a sales budget standpoint. With our first brand exposures at Toy Fair in October, followed by various gift shows in January and the NETS Show and Toy Fest shows, we are very happy with the support from customers in both the Toy and Gift Channels. Our outlook for 2024 is very positive and we are prepared for an important first exposure at Astra and continuing success at every major summer gift show.” 2024 has been relatively sluggish for other toy companies, as evidenced by National Sporting Goods’ CEO and President Gregg Adelsheimer’s remarks. “Sales have been slow so far, down by 10%. We expect this trend to continue throughout 2024 and hope for a rebound in 2025” Amy Reitsma, Global Sales and Business Development Manager at eeBoo, says that the company has seen meandering already, but hopes remain high. “We had a strong start in the first two months, but a quick falloff in March and April. I think Easter being early, coupled with Spring Breaks, really slowed the month down. We’ll always be optimistic, and we have a robust offering coming out in a few weeks, but feel this year might be a tough one within the specialty sector.” Making an Appearance The beginning of 2025 will be stacked, with three in-person shows occurring before April: NETS, ToyFest, and Toy Fair! We asked each respondent to see which shows they planned to attend. In response to “which events will you attend?” eeBoo says “yes!” Ms. Reitsma comments, “We will have a presence at all three shows with our rep organizations and our own booth again at Toy Fair. All three shows are important for the marketplace and our specialty reps.” Bene World’s Ms. Ley agrees. “All three shows offer great opportunities to reach as many buyers as possible and to form and develop relationships with people in the industry.”