16-19 LSB 2020 Licensee Feedback_muk.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 06/07/2020 08:15 Page 19
LICENSEE FEEDBACK
Matt Reynolds, md, Little Brother Books “Most licensors have been pretty understanding of the challenges lockdown has brought to licensing deals this year. This has been very much appreciated. Obviously, support and understanding from both sides is Left: Most licensors needed to make sure a fair solution is have been pretty found on current licensing agreements understanding, and terms. says Matt. Although a number of our retailers remained open during lockdown, customers were encouraged not to spend too much time in supermarkets and other specialty/value shops (and most other books retailers were closed) so they didn’t spend time ‘browsing’ for non-essential products (including most non-food categories), so therefore missing our impulse products. We also found that retailers were cautious on orders (or cancelled orders) because of this. Minecraft and Fortnite have been our bestsellers during lockdown and we have finalised a number of new brands including O.M.G Dolls, Poopsie, 44 Cats and Kindi Kids. It is still going to be a slow return to normal as long as government guidelines and restrictions are in place for retail. Therefore, I believe Christmas will see most retailers returning to some kind of ‘normal’.”
Maggie Calmels, owner, Licensed to Charm “We had to adopt new ways of working. Two of our small team are ‘sheltered’ so we shut our office/workshop/shop and are all working from home, and actually quite liking aspects of it. The biggest challenge has been getting our jewellery made – we are committed to UK manufacture and work with small suppliers and artisans, many of which had to close. Silver casting and gold plating have been the slowest to come back and are still not running at capacity so the lead times are longer. Conversations [with partners] are ongoing. We’ve had a very welcome contract extension agreed on due to the circumstances. Now we have new deals under discussion and have recently
Dan Grant, licensing director, Danilo “Like most businesses, Danilo has experienced a significant loss of turnover throughout the past three months. With the vast majority of retail stores being closed, there has been almost no demand for and also restricted supply of greeting card stocks generally. We have been fortunate that our key customers are Above: The sending the grocers and so some sales have of greeting cards has continued, albeit at a low level during been a positive uplift these testing times. during the pandemic, The flip side of this is that our online says Dan. sales have seen a massive uplift, which indicates that there is still a huge demand for greeting cards from consumers and that they are willing to use online options to source these. We are gradually seeing order levels returning to pre-lockdown levels with supermarkets restocking card fixtures and the high street retailers beginning to reopen again. The sending of greeting cards is something that has seen a positive uplift during the pandemic, with many people sending cards to pass on messages of hope, condolence and praise to loved ones, friends or just people who have done something special during the crisis. For me there are two big challenges ahead of us. Firstly, the return of retailers and consumers to our high streets and shopping malls. It’s difficult to know what the retail landscape will look like going forward with many retailers already struggling to survive before the crisis. The consumers will be key to this and so it will also be interesting to see if consumers are confident enough to return to shopping in bricks and mortar stores and whether they are confident enough to spend money during what is expected to be a fairly bleak few months on the job front. Secondly, I’m keen to see how licensees will deal with the uncertainty we are experiencing at retail and once the government’s support on furloughing staff finishes. Unfortunately, I think we will see a lot of businesses restructured across the licensing industry, so it’s important that we are all supporting each other where we can at this challenging time.”
managed a successful ‘virtual’ launch of our Miffy jewellery range with the help of our social team and the licensor. Our shop is still shut, but we have some new ecommerce partners, and indie stores are starting to open so we are now actively looking for wholesale opportunities. A bit more flexibility on contract length and sales channels would also be welcome.” Left: Licensed to Charm managed a successful ‘virtual’ launch of its Miffy jewellery range.
LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2020
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