Facts and Figures
THE TOP “It’s all about the old school joke items for us at the moment – fun snaps, wig caps, plastic handcuffs, red hairspray and fake lit cigarette. That sort of thing is all doing really well.”
Inset: Love him or hate him, Trump has been been a money-spinner for Hollywood fancy dress.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY “Spend is relatively the same on an average basket whether instore or online – we do our utmost to encourage customers to come instore by being as competitive and attractive as possible. It’s hard to compete with people’s perception of Amazon!”
HOLLYWOOD FANCY DRESS IN NUMBERS Hollywood Fancy Dress is a family-run business which has been trading since 1985, when it first started as a hire costume and balloon shop. Now with four stores based across the south coast of England (Dorset, Bournemouth, Southampton and Poole), Hollywood Fancy Dress has grown and expanded and now offers tens of thousands of party products. PPE spoke to owner Archie Brown to find out the figures behind the brand’s success.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND “We have been working with Smiffys for 15 years and are always impressed by any suppliers who go out of their way to support the independent shops instead of the online marketplaces.”
“Business for 2019 has been slow and down on previous years – we think this is primarily due to Amazon and the country being paralyzed with Brexit. Some suppliers take things too seriously though – fancy dress should mean good times, smiling faces and fun. We need the fun back in fancy dress!”
MY HERO!
Inset: Hollywood Fancy Dress – putting the fun back in fancy dress.
PEOPLE POWER The Hollywood Fancy Dress team consists of 12 ‘amazing team members’, who mix it up and work together across all four stores.
STORE STATS
Inset: Balloons are an important part of the Hollywood Fancy Dress business model, with foils in particular selling well.
“80s lines.”
ON THE WAY
“ World Book Day.”
PUT THE FUN IN FANCY DRESS
THE KING LIVES! “Our best customer over the past few weeks has been someone holding an Elvis party – he purchased a large number of items including costumes, wigs and accessories to make his house party special and effective.”
ON THE WAY
“The absolute ‘hero’ product for the first half of 2019 has been balloons of all sort – foils from Qualatex mainly. Who else?! We also think latex masks are going to be a big hit at Halloween this year – we have lines from Palmer Agencies, Boland Party, Smiffys and Bristol Novelty. We also sell some of the Ghoulish masks from Creative Collection, they are amazing! The budget masks are going to be the winner this year – all the various Trump masks have done well.”
T T he four different stores come in a range of sizes, from an olympic swimming pool to half a football pitch (the Poole shop is 5,000 sq ft over two floors). T T he last delivery contained three boxes of product. T L ast week saw the team inflate between 50 and 80 balloons for retail sales of all shapes and sizes.
ALL CHANGE! The windows at Hollywood Fancy Dress are given a whole new look once a week. The team uses large posters supplied by Smiffys, mannequins for costumes and balloon displays as well as decorations. The windows reflect current events or upcoming events, films and festivals etc.
CUSTOMER CONTACT “We are trying to encourage customers to have garden and house parties whilst the sun is out and enjoy life. They can forget Brexit for a short time!”
JULY/AUGUST 2019 PROGRESSIVE PARTY EUROPE
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