Movies, summer events and sunny weather help traditional toy sales grow two per cent in May.
March was an extremely sunny month, which bought an early start
to the purchase of outdoor and sports toy sales.
Growth in the construction, collectables and outdoor categories helps soften the blow of an overall two per cent sales dip.
December value is up four per cent, helped by Christmas Eve falling on Saturday - read our exclusive NPD data to see the figures in full.
The total toy market performance slowed in September, with value sales down four per cent.
With the school holidays in full swing, Disney-Pixar’s Cars was the strongest film licence in the market in August, accounting for four per cent of total sales.
With data now available for the first two quarters of 2011, the total toy market in the UK grew by four per cent in value, but was down ten per cent in units.
Outdoor and sports toys is the second largest supercategory within traditional toys by value and worth over £345m in the last 12 months (source: NPD Consumer Panel).
2010 was a growth year for the toy market with value up nine per cent for the full year compared to 2009 and both value and volume sales higher than in 2008 – pre-Woolworths closure.
The first quarter of 2010 was a strong performance for the traditional toy market, but the last month has seen sales slow.
The traditional toy market has exhibited growth for the third month in a row.
Traditionally spring is a time of rebirth and the traditional toys market is no exception with value sales up nine per cent year-to-date in February.
January saw a positive start to 2010, with the total traditional toy market up three per cent in value versus January 2009.
Sales of outdoor and sports toys are always reliant on weather and 2009 was no exception. The summer saw two peaks during spells of good weather and the early snowfall in December gave the category another boost…
A look back over 2009 shows a market of two halves...
According to NPD, some 70 per cent of toy items sold in the UK cost less than a fiver...
UK Retail sales rose 1.8 per cent in value on a like-for-like basis in July 2009 and up 2.6 per cent on a total basis according to the British Retail Consortium.
UK retail sales were up 4.6 per cent in April on a like-for-like basis according to the British Retail Consortium. This was due to Easter falling in April this year compared to March in 2008, along with warmer sunny weather this April, while last year it was cold and wet.
According to the British Retail Consortium, UK sales fell 1.2 per cent on a like for like basis from March 2008 with some unseasonably warm weather this March benefiting clothing, footwear and outdoor leisure sales.
The boys sector is dominated by licensed properties, with the all-conquering Ben 10 topping the charts for over a year and showing no signs of abating. This year sees yet more strong movies with the new Transformers, Wolverine and Terminator films arriving in the summer. ToyNews views what’s on offer....
The outdoor market is one of the biggest sectors in the industry, and was worth £361 million for the year up to September 2008. But it is seasonal, and more than any sector, largely dependent on uncontrollable factors such as weather. NPD offers some insight into how it fared recently…
