Retail Profile - Hamleys

Hamleys has designs on Westfield London

Toy World’s publisher John Baulch and assistant editor Sam Giltrow experience the new Hamleys Westfield London store in an exclusive tour with senior buyer Karen Dennett and Daniel King, trading manager, UK & ROI.

Karen Dennett

Daniel King

Hamleys has opened its second largest store in the UK in Westfield London (White City), with the retailer intimating that the new space will serve as a blueprint for further rollouts. As with the famous Regent Street store - the retailer’s largest premises and its flagship in the 17-strong UK chain underpinning the overall atmosphere and central to its offering is the overall customer experience, with different themed areas and demonstrations to entice shoppers and deliver the in-store theatre and magic that Hamleys is known for.

Providing a 11,000sq ft toy wonderland, the state-of-the-art store opened on 18th November, just in time for peak Christmas trading. Featuring an array of favourite toys from the traditional to the hightech, games and puzzles to arts and crafts, the space is packed with well-known brands such as Lego, Barbie, Playmobil and Schleich. Other companies well represented across the product mix include Hasbro, Simba (with its eye-catching display wall of Disney soft toys), Epoch Making Toys, Ravensburger and Rainbow Designs, with a prominent section devoted to Paddington Bear.

As well as choosing from a wide selection of popular toys and games, customers can visit the Build A Bear Workshop, the only Hamleys-based one outside of its Regent Street store, enjoy desserts from the Hans & Gretel dessert boutique, practise shooting skills in a Nerf target practice area and have a well-earned play in the Playmobil area.

There’s also a ‘beauty parlour’ area, photo opportunities with a Barbie photo booth and Lego backdrop and the chance to get up close to a huge Schleich animatronic dinosaur. Central to the store is a fun slide, suitable for both kids and grown-ups, which has been sponsored by plush toy company Ty, which also provided the inaugural window displays for the store, featuring the company’s limited edition Queen Elizabeth II Bear, plus its Paddington and Squishy Beanies ranges. Shoppers can also experience meet & greets with the iconic Hamleys Bear and an array of other Hamleys characters, plus enjoy special guest appearances from the world of TV and film to create even more excitement.

In the run-up to Christmas, trading in the store’s first few weeks of opening has been brisk and Daniel King, Hamleys’ trading manager, UK & ROI, tells Toy World that the new store was primed for success following a smaller pop-up Hamleys store, which opened in the shopping centre in December 2021. “We knew all along when we had the pop-up that we would be opening a permanent store and we wanted to get it open before Christmas,” he explains. “This is a new design for us, and it is a test. However, sales have been very good.”

Senior buyer Karen Dennett adds: “The store is doing fantastically - better than expected - and we had a particularly good start for product with our Top 10 Toys for Christmas and key brands such as Barbie, Ty Paddington, Playdoh, Nerf and Playmobil. Our USP is the overall experience of coming into a Hamleys store, and we have tried to incorporate a huge amount of interaction and engagement into the new branch.”

Karen believes the store will appeal to “a totally different customer” to those who shop at Hamleys’ other locations, with tourists and commuters making up most of the customers visiting the stores based in tourist hot spots, railway stations and airports.

As well as promoting Hamleys’ own brand toys and games, with eight demonstration areas to showcase the products, big brands have been key in supporting the opening and there are some stunning installations around the bright and colourful shop from the likes of Hasbro Gaming, Play-Doh, Lego, Mattel, Schleich, Playmobil and Simba Smoby. There’s a huge K’Nex Big Wheel, built by members of the Royal British Legion and, at the time of our visit, the Playmobil section featured a Santa’s Grotto, with Daniel telling us that this area will be refreshed regularly by the Playmobil team.

Daniel says the Westfield store will act as a blueprint for other new locations. Finding other locations in shopping centre settings is a key focus for Hamleys and he tells us that the retailer is currently in discussions with several landlords, with a hint that a similar new store likely to be open before Christmas in 2023.

Daniel also praises the suppliers for “adding so much colour to the store” and says their support has been crucial in the overall design of the space, even providing custom-made designs to cover the store’s pillars.

The Covid pandemic hit Hamleys’ UK stores hard, with UK travel and tourism so badly affected, but Karen says figures show footfall at the Regent Street store is now back to its 2019 level, which is obviously welcome news for the retailer and the opening of larger, experiential stores such as this can only put Hamleys even more firmly on the map.