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Drumond Park outlines future plans under strategic partnership with Tomy
T
he UK games brand Drumond Park is moving to Tomy. The company has tempted Drumond away from Vivid Toy Group with commitments to substantially stronger TV campaigns and a long-term brand-building philosophy to achieve their shared objective of building the UK’s No. 1 games brand.
FAO Schwarz launches Selfridges pop-up The fourth floor of Selfridges now features an eye-catching display of toys and the iconic FAO Schwarz piano. Redlands Distribution acquired the exclusive rights to introduce the iconic FAO Schwarz brand to the UK and has worked closely with the ThreeSixty Group and the teams at Selfridges to bring the pop-up store to market in less than six months. The combination of Selfridges retail excellence, market leading product from ThreeSixty under its three brands of FAO, Discovery and Sharper Image, and the entrepreneurism of Redlands Distribution, showed what can happen when all focus is on delivering a great project. Mark Handley, managing partner of Redlands Distribution, commented: “The opportunity to secure the rights for FAO for the UK & Ireland, and to be able to launch with Selfridges across their portfolio, was the perfect start. Redlands Distribution looks forward to building on this great foundation.” Jan-Eric Kloth, COO of ThreeSixty Group, owner of FAO Schwarz, added: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Selfridges for our first launch into the UK market and look forward to showcasing our toys and to entertaining customers on the iconic BigPiano.”
Vulcan to represent BS Toys Following the success of the brands Crocodile Creek, Mudpuppy, Tiger Tribe and Snails Nails for the Belgium based company Bertoy in the UK, Philip Morris is expanding his profile of brands and from 1st January will become country manager for BS Toys. BS Toys is a Dutch toy brand well known for its educational, creative and activity toys. Featuring cheerful colours and sustainable materials, the assortment of 120 games from BS Toys is designed to aid child development with plenty of imagination. The agents currently handling sales for Bertoy in the UK and Ireland will also be taking on the responsibility for sales of the BS Toy range. If you would like any further information about the range, contact Philip at Vulcan Toys philip@vulcantoys.co.uk or call 07748 150 906. The 2019 new range catalogue can also be found on the BS Toys website.
Drumond’s head of marketing, Claire McCool, commented: “We are now in a very good place with a strong, established Claire McCool games range and fantastic new lines in the pipeline. With such exceptional adult and family titles as Articulate!, Logo and Rapidough, as well as a raft of exciting children’s games, we have become one of the best known games brands in the business.” Claire continued: “The creative team at Drumond Games is the driving force behind most of our topselling titles. It has always taken the long view in terms of product design and development, with its many long-lived successes proving the team’s high standards of originality and gameplay.” The Drumond Games team also has an unrivalled track record at translating top TV gameshows into board games. Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Deal or No Deal, Catch Phrase and Family Fortunes top the list with multi-million sales over the years. “We are always interested in licensing deals which fit into our structure and fields of expertise” said Claire. “And in future we will not be limiting ourselves to just the television entertainment platform – so watch this space.” The appeal of Drumond Games’ creations is further confirmed by the international success of its games, licensed through Drumond International, its worldwide representative. Jan Slecht of Drumond International commented: “A wide variety of our games are now on sale in markets across Europe, Scandinavia, Australia - and throughout the Americas.” Claire added: “With many new ideas already flowing from the Tomy/Drumond fusion, we are planning huge growth in both the range and the volume of the UK business. With 12 games planned for launch over the next two years, we are at the start of a very exciting new phase in our development.”
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