The Los Angeles Fall Toy Preview is underway, with nearly 300 toy and game manufacturers looking to meet with members of the international retail community in the greater Los Angeles area.
UK-based Addo Play first took up space in the growing El Segundo Toy District last year, offering temporary space during a preview in April. By September 2023, the company established a U.S. subsidiary, Addo Play USA LLC. It established a permanent showroom at 1960 East Grand Avenue, a location affectionately known as the “New Toy Building” in homage to New York City’s former Toy Center.
This year, Addo Play will focus on growing its business in the United States. and a variety of products within the Early Learning Center brand.
The Toy Book: Can you give someone who isn’t familiar with your company and products a little background on the history of Addo Play?
How to play Addo: Founded in 2015, Addo Play is an award-winning, dynamic toy company providing “ready to go” multi-category toy opportunities for any retailer. Through our Addo and Early Learning Center brands and long-term licenses, we provide retailers and other strategic partners with total toy solutions, capsule collections and individual merchandise based on their needs.
Addo Play is simple, professional and provides the best blue chip service. Our global team of experts in product development and toy sourcing creates great toys through smart, thoughtful and safe design and unique tools.
The uniqueness, differentiation, high sales velocity and high retailer margins of our toys set us apart. Our elevated and consistent product range is based on retail sales data and insights, so we know what works.
This knowledge, combined with our exclusivity in partner markets, means retailers can control retail prices and margins and offer a differentiated toy offering compared to their competitors – an unrivaled combination.
TB: Your private label brands are largely new to North America – can you tell us a little bit about them?
Associated Press: Addo and Early Learning Centers are complementary, premium private label toy brands, each with their own unique personality.
Addo is our everyday toy brand that offers excellent value. It’s a real alternative to the major brands.
Early Learning Centers (ELC) are our globally trusted one-stop shop for high-quality, timeless preschool toys. With over 50 years of expertise, ELC provides guidance for each child’s unique developmental path and encourages learning through play.
Our brands are innovative, relevant and relevant to the needs of today’s consumers. Our toy product portfolio has grown to over 1,000 products, including Addo, ELC, and multiple evergreen licenses in recent years.
Through these licensing partnerships, we deliver high margins and differentiation to powerful brands like Paw Patrol and Barbie. Another example is the incredible success we’ve had with Spin Master’s unique Fugglers attribute. We rebranded, repositioned the price to true value and made it a collectible, resulting in amazing global retail sales. We nurtured the brand and passed the torch to ZURU Toys, which has taken over global licensing rights for Fuggler plush toys from Addo Play.
TB: Why should retailers stock ELCs in the highly competitive preschool space?
Associated Press: ELC’s timeless toys are passed down from generation to generation and have been bringing fun to children and families through learning and development for over 50 years.
We acquired ELC in 2019 because of its unique design, high quality, durability and affordability. This world-class brand of traditional preschool toys provides guidance to support every developmental path and encourages learning through play.
ELC is a complete and unparalleled solution for retailers. It offers a wide range of unique products that inspire imagination and inspire learning through play. Our products are affordable for home consumption and sold by our retail partners at lucrative margins.
TB: As you look for U.S. retail partners, what is Addo Play’s international footprint like?
Associated Press: Our toys are sold in more than 24,000 stores through an international network of strategic partners and distributors. They are available in a variety of retail outlets, including independent specialty toy stores, grocers, department stores, mass retailers, hypermarkets, e-commerce platforms and convenience stores.
We sell to partners in Canada, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Some major retailers include The Entertainer Toy Shop, Tesco, Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Toys “R” Us Canada.
We’re very excited to be making waves in the U.S. market because we’ve built our brand here.
TB: You mentioned The Entertainer Toy Shop, which is familiar to readers and friends in the UK but is less well known in the US. Can you elaborate on the relationship? There is a compelling opportunity to build similar partnerships with the right political parties in the United States
Associated Press: Through its exclusive partner program, Addo Play acts as the product development and toy manufacturing arm of The Entertainer Group. Addo Play Ltd. is part of TEAL Group Holdings, the parent company of all operating companies within The Entertainer Group.
The Entertainer is Europe’s fastest growing toy retailer, operating over 350 specialty toy stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland and international markets through its franchise partners. The Entertainer also works with Tesco, M&S and Matalan to help run their toy departments. This relationship has resulted in Addo Play toys being sold in over 4,000 stores in the UK alone.
Earlier this year, The Entertainer and Tesco announced a partnership to sell toys in more than 850 Tesco stores across the UK and Ireland. As the UK’s largest retailer and the world’s third largest retailer, hundreds of thousands of Tesco customers can enjoy exclusive Addo and ELC products every day.
As a sister company to The Entertainer, Addo Play’s product assortment is data-driven, drawing on over 40 years of expert toy insight and a window into all the latest trends. All products comply with all relevant quality assurance ethical and safety standards, which is a benefit to potential international customers as the products can be put into use without capital investment from partners.
TB: Please tell us a little bit about the importance of business ethics to your sustainability strategy.
Associated Press: We are committed to making the planet a better place for every child, future generations and the global communities we work with. Our strategy aims to deliver on this commitment through sustainable product and packaging design, responsible business operations, ethical trading principles, community focus and an organizational culture of care, diversity and inclusion.
Addo Play is committed to exceeding ethical expectations and safety standards through thorough design. Our large manufacturing sites are 100% independently audited to globally recognized standards and certification schemes such as SMETA, BSCI and ICTI Ethical Toy Scheme.
Our team of compliance professionals has extensive toy industry expertise and ensures that all our toys comply with international quality and safety standards in markets around the world. They also work in the United States and are familiar with CTPAT trade compliance.
Guided by our core values, we constantly challenge ourselves to find smarter ways to do business – positive ways to help society build a safer, more sustainable world for generations to come.
TB: How can interested retailers and resellers best interact with Addo Play?
Associated Press: We’re happy to get in touch! Interested parties can email [email protected] to schedule a meeting.
The Toy Book team will be in Los Angeles for the Los Angeles Fall Preview Market Week from September 9-13, 2024. ) space to receive.
