Cover Story Chicco
Chicco:
adjusting the sails to the wind to reach the destination 2022 looks set to be an exciting year of continued growth for Artsana, the home of Chicco, Boppy and RECARO. It’s the natural reward following the successful process of learning, adapting and “adjusting the sails” after two challenging years. Mitch Levene, Managing Director, Artsana UK & Ireland, tells us more.
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hilst 2020 was a record year for Artsana UK & Ireland, 2021 proved for the entire nursery industry to be one of the most challenging on record. Nevertheless, Artsana navigated its way through the turmoil and has witnessed rapid growth that has continued into the start of 2022, with the company’s performance up by almost 40% versus last year and already surpassing 2020’s record sales. Mitch Levene, Managing Director, Artsana UK & Ireland is proud of the way his colleagues adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown and subsequent global shipping crisis. “These are traumatic challenges, although the team remained positive throughout, and with our retail partners we embraced this uncertainty together. Whilst challenges remain moving forwards, Artsana UK & Ireland continues to be committed to working in partnership for mutual success in 2022 and we have adopted the new mission statement “adjusting the sails to the wind to reach the destination.” “It is clear from the superb start to 2022 that this positivity is reflected via a whole host of new product innovations and a high-impact advertising campaign, with the usual heavyweight investment in our retail partners. This includes considerable
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nursery today
Continuing in 2022 is Artsana’s famous ‘Play and Pay’ strategy, which has reaped benefits for its retailers in recent years by rewarding those who support the Chicco, Boppy and RECARO brands with strong product presence and gold standard in-store and online support.
contributions into our promotional calendar, advertising link-ups and powerful display units. A guaranteed recipe for success for our retail partners that continue to support and back Artsana.” Also continuing in 2022 is Artsana’s famous ‘Play and Pay’ strategy, which has reaped benefits for its retailers in recent years by rewarding those who support the Chicco, Boppy and RECARO brands with strong product presence and gold standard in-store and online support. Exclusive bundles developed across the Chicco, Boppy and RECARO ranges have also provided customers with an added incentive to invest. Social media continues to be an effective communication channel when it comes to reaching consumers and over the past two years, there has been increasing levels of engagement from followers within key demographics. Chicco has continued to support its retailers by offering ongoing social media support, such as tailored assets to use on their own channels and including retailer tagging and, direct consumers to a relevant point of purchase. This will continue in 2022, further demonstrating Artsana’s commitment to engage with expectant parents and ultimately
influence their purchasing decisions. This support for both retailers and expectant parents will be reinforced in 2022 by some truly innovative new products. One area in particular where Artsana will be using new product innovation to reinforce its dominant market position and prove yet again why we are the trusted experts is in the Chicco sleeptime range. Chicco has always been synonymous with side-sleeping and the much-loved Next2Me is the ‘one-and-only’ original side-sleeping crib. Chicco has built on the success of the original Next2Me over the years and continued to extend the range with products that quickly establish themselves as absolute must-haves for expectant parents, including the Next2Me Forever in 2021 – the very first 3-in-1 side-sleeping crib that can be used from birth through to four years – and the Next2Me Magic 2. Artsana’s ongoing commitment to support the side-sleeping market and protect against the cheaper copycat products that have flooded the market in recent years is stronger than ever. Innovation within this category is key and thanks to the baby research centre and product development team, Artsana has continually cemented itself as the
