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Nuremberg
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Show and tell This month, Salma Haidrani speaks to a selection of Nuremberg exhibitors to find out why it’s the highlight of the toy fair season and what their stand-out products will be. Danny Whiteley Andrew Laughton MGA Nuremberg remains the biggest fair of the season, and a great opportunity to meet with suppliers from all over Europe to introduce them to our new brands and ranges. Plus, with our German heritage, Zapf Creation, it’s a no brainer for us. The show attracts global visitors and brings the best of the international toy industry together in one space. With a growing portfolio of brands, we have new innovation across both existing and new properties. This spring, our hot new launch in stores is our collectible L.O.L – the new toy that brings together the excitement of collectibles and unboxing. L.O.L will be available in stores in the UK from February. We’ll be showcasing lots of exciting new products and brands at the show, with a full team on the stand to speak to anyone interested in finding out more. 2016 has been a very strong year across the board, with our Zapf and MGA properties performing extremely well. For MGA, we launched our first collectible range, Num Noms, and it’s grown to be the fifth biggest new property year-to-date. Gel-a-Peel, our new arts and crafts brand, launched this summer and it’s safe to say we are delighted with the brand’s performance. With Little Tikes, we are currently the sixth biggest property in the whole of toys, and the classic Cozy Coupe is the 19th best-selling toy year-to-date. Our Zapf Creation doll brands have also had a strong year, with Baby Annabell and Baby born retaining the No.1 and No.2 positions in the nurturing doll category, respectively. Baby Annabell was the fourth best-selling toy in the UK in November, demonstrating how this product continues to resonate strongly with consumers due to the aesthetic and life-like features.
Vance Withers
GB Eye At GB Eye, our product mix is changing, and after visiting the fair in 2016, we thought it was the ideal place to showcase what we have been working on over the past 12-18 months. 30% of our annual turnover is accumulated through sales outside of the UK. With Nuremberg toy fair having over 70,000 visitors last year, 41,000 of them coming from overseas, it offers great opportunities to meet up with our existing distributors, as well as hopefully building new customer relationships for our new products which can widen our distribution network. Many of our new licences and products will be on show, including Glassware, Heat Change Mugs and 3D Mugs. We have new formats for 2017 which we will be launching at the show. Samples will be available to give a taste of what’s to come. As with all our trade shows, any new customers placing orders at the show will receive a 10% discount on all list prices. Highlights of 2016 were the growth and expansion of our in-house mug production, where we were working around the clock just to keep up with demand. Secondly, the two main trends have been the Wizarding World, with Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter, as well as the re-emergence of the Pokémon phenomena. Who would have thought it could be as big second time around?
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Philip Harrison Mondo We exhibit at Nuremberg simply due to the fact that it is the main European toy fair, and Europe is the major market for our business. It’s the ideal place to meet our European business partners. Also, we receive many visitors from around world who regard Nuremberg as the worldwide toy fair. We are able to have a very large stand at the show, which means we get to display a large range of products to show buyers how they look and work outside of the box. Having all of our major clients in one place is obviously also a major benefit. We will be revealing one or two new licences which will complement existing ranges, and we will also be revealing that we are to be the official licensee for kids World Cup ’18 footballs. There will also be new items added to the Hot Wheels range across all sizes. One of the biggest highlight of 2016 for us is that we created a partnership with Halfords, which is growing and has been a great success. We’ve also had some great developments in the range of children’s drones and RC cars.
Worlds Apart Nuremberg provides a platform for us to meet both UK and international partners and customers to finalise autumn/winter 2017 commitments. The sheer size of the show means that most key players attend, and the space available to us means that we can showcase our brands and NPD in the best possible way. There are also many networking opportunities created. We will be showcasing new product developments in our core range of products - GoGlow, Ready Beds, Outdoor and Room Accessories - alongside new launches in the games, tech, boys and girls arenas. SelfieMic was a phenomenal global success in 2016. LimboHop was a huge hit in both the Outdoor and Games categories, and our Headphone Hats were a great innovation which broke new ground and opened up global distribution.
Toy World 92