16-19 LSB 2020 Licensee Feedback_muk.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 06/07/2020 08:15 Page 18
LICENSEE FEEDBACK
Mark Tomlin, md, Bespoke 77 Innovations “We saw a huge spike in demand from online customers through our ‘Pick and Pack’ operation, such as Carluccio’s Italian Larder, Vytronix & Bespoke77. We have been dispatching up to 8,000 packages per week. Our warehouse is large and the team have been able to support our clients safely by socially distancing and following government guidelines with anti-bacterial cleaning and hand washing. Business with licensors has been fine, but from a retail perspective, the shutters have come down. We have had to find our own routes to retail and explore some new opportunities and collaborations such as a grow bag range with Spear & Jackson. I think lead times will be a challenge, we have recognised this and have more local sources but will retail pay for this? Minimising the carbon footprint comes with a cost. The quality is superior but are we all prepared to pay? We should be. It’s going to take time before the public feel safe returning to public areas to shop. Lockdown has introduced a generation of internet shoppers and I wonder if this will strengthen the desire to continue to shop from home. Conversations we were having prior to lockdown are now more important than ever. Innovation, working partnerships, superior quality, long lasting, sustainable, desirable and a fair supply chain is our future.” Left: Bespoke 77 has explored new collaborations such as a grow bag range with Spear & Jackson.
Faye-Louise Jobbins, md, Tikiboo “There have been two sides to this: on the one hand, we have seen an increase in customers as during lockdown a lot of people have turned to fitness and embracing home workouts. On the other hand, we have experienced stock issues due to supply chain closures and have had to adapt the items we sell based on what we can physically make internally. We have still kept in touch with the majority of partners. Obviously, with factory closures, we have not been able to make any new products, but we have lined up some exciting new licences during the lockdown period that we hope to
release later this year. We are lucky in the fact that we are online retailers and we have been fortunate that our fulfilment centre kept working throughout the whole lockdown period, meaning we could still sell what we currently had in stock. If we had a physical retail store, the company would have lost way too much money to continue after three months of no income. I think now is a good time for the sector to be looking for new partners, and to explore partnerships with ecommerce-based brands, which is likely to be the future of retail for most. We have previously experienced snobbery from certain licensed brands because we are only an online brand. However, this mindset will need to change and adapt in this everchanging world in which we live in.” Above: Tikiboo managed to roll out a new Care Bears collaboration during lockdown.
Rob Broadhurst, sales and licensing, Aykroyd & Sons “As most businesses will have found, there was a real challenge in trying to balance short and longer term decision making. The pausing of retail and the supply chain obviously caused an awful lot of issues in the immediacy, particularly around cash flow, staffing levels, etc. However, we also had to have an eye on development for AW20 and beyond– the government support policies were particularly helpful in this regard, particularly the furlough scheme. One of the positives that we have found during all this, is the communication with our key partners, both retail and licensor, has been pretty much constant throughout and importantly, it has been bilateral. Liaising with retail in the early days to manage our way through what was an extremely complicated situation, but throughout this the conversations around AW20 and SS21 development continued, which meant we were always able to look forwardrather than being mired in the day to day. Quite a few consumer behaviour trends have been accelerated by the lockdown, particularly around online/mobile purchasing and digital consumption of media. I think the important conversations now need to be around how we bring the business model – incorporating both the product supply chain and the licensing model – up to speed to be able to service this properly.” Left: Quite a few consumer behaviour trends have been accelerated by lockdown, says Rob.Jackson.
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LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2020