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Spotlight On... Nursery/Children’s Gifts
Responsible
Parenting With sustainability such a huge global issue, the nursery and children’s sector hasn’t wasted a moment in rising to the challenge, offering parents and gift givers an eclectic range of products, with wooden toys and games, ecofriendly plush and sustainable children’s tableware high on the list of products that are driving sales. With sustainably playing such a big part in everyone’s lives on a global scale, sustainable giftware for babies and children is a much sought after alternative to products that feature plastic, with longevity very much in the minds of manufacturers and suppliers. “Raising the next world leaders, we are looking to our children to focus their attention on the world’s climate crisis,” says PMC’s new product manager Cara Beech. “Our products are ethically and sustainably sourced, and this continues to be an important conversation that we are having with our suppliers.” In fact, Cara predicts that ‘novelty’ products will become a thing of the past. “Gifts are now being bought to last with our brand new wooden toys ticking all the boxes, featuring hard wearing materials and bright colours.” She also predicts that ‘maximalist’ will be the new buzzword. “Nurseries won’t be viewed as clutter-filled. Instead, they with be ‘well nested’ and filled with personalised touches. With this in
Right: Rainbow Designs is bringing out a Peter Rabbit Signature collection showing Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny in their most traditional form. Below right: A wooden ‘choo choo’ from House of Marbles. Below: Part of Orange Tree Toys’ wooden Sea Life collection. Bottom left: A colourful, personalised wooden rainbow from PMC.
mind, we are expanding our range of personalised prints, as well as our accessorise range to include personalised laundry bags and cushions.” Phoebe Goodchild, a designer at Orange Tree Toys, concurs that plastic free toys and packaging is an important direction that many companies are taking, with Orange Tree Toys no exception. “We have two new ranges of wooden toys coming out for 2020, and are particularly excited about our Sea Life collection, which has a new look to the packaging and reflects our
evolvement to make our packaging more environmental, reducing the use of plastic where possible and making sure that it is recyclable.” Also stressing the trend for wooden toys is House of Marbles’ trade marketing and online manager Lauren Woodsford. “As the interest in nonplastic toys continues to grow, so traditional wooden toys are looking to be
a key trend for Spring,” she highlights. “They make a much more environmentally friendly gift and have lots of nostalgic appeal too. For 2020, products we are launching include bright, simple ‘lolly stick’ puzzles as well as a wooden train.” Highlighting the company’s brand Petit Collage, Joelle Engolia, Wild & Wolf’s marketing manager, says that the company’s
ethos has always been about designing eco-friendly products with the health of the child and the planet in mind. “We’re especially excited about our new baby collection for SS20, as it’s the first time that we’ve really expanded our nursery category for several seasons,” enthuses Joelle. “We’ve seen that baby lines that allow parents to document their little one’s growth have recently been especially popular within the market, and with this in mind, two of our SS20 lines include our wooden baby milestone blocks and baby journal, offering new parents the opportunity to capture special moments, such as the baby’s first Progressive Gifts & Home Worldwide
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