£14m ?outdoor toy hole? holds key to UK growth.
Extracting outdoor sales from the equation, the UK would actually be up five per cent in the year to date to April, against the same period in 2007. But good weather at the start of May has seen outdoor sales increase 5.7 per cent by value on last year meaning the market is up by a single percentage point on last year so far.
In a presentation made at the recent BTHA industry day toy category manager Frederique Tutt also pointed out the power of licensing in the toy market, which now accounts for £321m of total toy sales, up some 16 per cent on the year before. The grocery channel is leading the charge in licensing with sales of licensed toys up 46 per cent in that sector.