5 minute read
Cover Story - with MV Sports joint managing director Phil Ratcliffe
Making
electric!
MV Sports joint managing director Phil Ratcliffe explains how the company is using its own brand Li-Fe to achieve its vision of getting people out of cars and making travel both green and fun
How has trading been over the past 12 months?
Trading has held up well across all categories. The pandemic has shown how families have made the most of spending valuable time together through play, and disposable income seems to have been diverted away from other recreational activities into the outdoor play and wheeled sectors.
Tell us a little about Li-Fe.
Li-Fe is our in-house e-mobility brand - dedicated exclusively to products such as electric scooters and electric bikes. Our vision is to change the way people travel by getting them out of cars and onto electric bikes and scooters for short or medium journeys. At the same time, we want to make those What made you decide to focus on electric product?
It’s hard to hide from the electric car revolution and that is creating wider demand for electric products. Scooters provide the most affordable step into electric
Fact!
journeys fun and, so far, everyone we’ve seen trying our electric scooters has had a massive smile on their face!
We’ve had an amazing year of sales through Li-Fe – it’s been very well received by retailers and consumers alike, and there’s plenty more to come.
What do you love most about Toy Fair?
Meeting customers and licensors, evenings with the team, and showing our entire range including our latest new products. It’s a culmination and a celebration of all our efforts over the past few months.
micromobility that a customer can take, so we’ve focused our initial energy there.
It’s an extremely popular and eco-friendly category in Europe, and we are excited to see this mirrored in the UK.
We have also seen incredible demand for electric bikes through our other in-group brands - Dawes and Claud Butler - so expanding the Li-Fe range to include eBikes was an easy decision for us to make.
It makes it a more allencompassing cross-category brand and allows our customers to continue their electrified journey with Li-Fe, for life.
Tell us more about the products within the range.
At present we have six electric scooters in the range: one for kids and five for adults.
Our kids scooter, the Li-Fe 120 Pro, is designed to be affordable, lightweight and fun, with a short recharge time for maximum usage.
With our adult scooters we take a very logical, functional and safetyconscious approach across the board. They all have a minimum 17km range and 25km/h top speed, which is aligned to the maximum support speed of an electric bike.
We use various tyre types - solid tyres to remove the risk of inconvenient punctures or airfilled for a more comfortable ride. They have easy-to-use folding mechanisms for compact storage or carrying onto trains, integrated lights for safety, and at least IP54 water-resistance rating for UK weather conditions.
They all deliver their power in a smooth and controlled way for a great riding experience.
At the top of our range is the Li-Fe 350HC, which has a skateboard-inspired maple wooden deck. It’s very competitively priced and customers seem to love it - it’s certainly an office favourite!
The first Li-Fe electric bike will be a stylish folding design due to launch early this year. Watch this space!
Is there any particular aspect of Toy Fair that you are most looking forward to?
Which products will you be launching at Toy Fair? Just being able to meet again. To talk business face-to-face in a convivial setting is a real incentive and something that we are all looking forward to. We are absolutely delighted to be back at Toy Fair.
Finally, is there anything else you’d like to add?
From all at MV Sports, we would like to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
We will be unveiling a range of ride-ons, battery-powered vehicles, scooters, trikes, bikes, helmets and accessories across all current ranges. We will also be launching a number of new and refreshed ranges for 2022, including Bluey, Lightyear, CoComelon, Hey Duggee, Peppa, Paw Patrol, Disney Princess and Batman, to name a few.
More exciting licences are set to join the impressive MV portfolio, with a couple more yet to be released. Come and see us at Toy Fair to enjoy the launch of these stunning new products and brands.
What can buyers hope to get from visiting your stand?
There will be an opportunity to see our latest launches in the ‘flesh’ for the first time, to meet the team, and to discuss bespoke opportunities.
We are most excited to see faces old and new in-person - we’ve almost forgotten what that feels like! - and to showcase our exciting array of new products and licences.
We also have some new faces attending Toy Fair for the first time as we further expand our amazing team. Come and say hello!
How will you be helping retailers drive sales?
By giving them flexible ways to buy and get involved, either via DD, stocked in or FOB. We are also striving to improve our online content and packaging for key ranges such as Hedstrom.
Can you reveal any more plans for 2022?
We will have lots of exciting newness off the back of a strong year. Many new, hot licences and innovative products are in the works for further 2022 development. At Toy Fair, we have a new stand and a new location right at the centre of the Main Hall - very exciting!
