The problem of working two nights a 12 months: that is how toy producers play it at Christmas | Business | EUROtoday

With one go to a 12 months and fewer and fewer kids on their lists, for the Three Wise Men and Santa Claus toy suppliers, each Christmas is a problem. This 12 months, the sector goals for a extra concentrated marketing campaign and a steady 12 months in comparison with 2023, through which it had a turnover of round 1,705 million euros, 0.35% greater than the earlier one. “Right now, what we aspire to is to repeat last year’s figure,” says Marta Salmón, president of the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers (AEFJ), by cellphone. Given the Christmas dependency and the drop within the delivery charge, the trade entrusts itself, amongst different elements, to the grownup public.

The excessive seasonality that already characterizes the toy trade in Spain is exacerbated this Christmas by the arithmetic of the calendar. Twelfth Night, for instance, falls on a Sunday. “While that week accounted for 8.3% last year [de la facturación]”More or less, this year it is believed that it may be around 11%,” comments the president. In 2023, the last three weeks of the season concentrated 25% of the income: “This year it is thought that it could be more than 30%,” he provides.

Perhaps as a result of immediacy and multiplication of channels linked to new types of buying or on account of financial points, or a mix of those components, amongst others, customers are leaving for tomorrow what they’ll purchase immediately. “In recent years we are seeing that people are delaying their purchase intention to the last few days,” says Luis Arnau, govt director of Scalextric. “In addition, customers [minoristas] They are delaying their promotional dynamics and so on. Therefore, there is an enormous concentration,” additionally factors out Fernando Marco, director of Mattel for Iberia and Italy.

By enjoying round 60% of the pie in a few months, corporations attempt to go away little room for improvisation. “There are many cases and many elements that impact and make the sector have a very concentrated risk in a very short period,” feedback Juan Fernández de Lis, Marketing Director of Cefa Toys. Uncertainty makes planning within the provide chain look extra detailed. In logistics, for instance, Juguettos shops discovered one of many predominant challenges this 12 months. “Transits have doubled in time. We have gone from about 30-35 days to more than 60″, says José Luis Díaz Mariscal, general director of the cooperative, which took over the defunct Imaginarium and Poly this year. “We have found that all our freight has been extended by 50% in cost and days. Especially in days,” says Arnau for his half. “This also represents a setback in the operation, having to make product forecasts earlier than was normally done. You tighten your entire chain.”

Look outdoors

On the opposite hand, the stagnation of the nationwide market has made corporations go overseas extra. With 757 million, exports accounted for greater than 40% of the sector’s accounts final 12 months, after rising virtually 6% in comparison with the earlier 12 months, in accordance with AEFJ knowledge shared by Salmón. France stays the principle vacation spot for Spanish toys, adopted by Portugal and Italy. “We have made resuming international sales one of the company’s development priorities and it is true that they are growing,” says Fernández de Lis.

Christmas, toys and childhood go hand in hand. But precariousness places on the desk that there are kids with out toys and the demographic decline signifies that there are toys with out kids. “The fact that the birth rate is more than 20% lower than ten years ago makes the environment complicated,” asserts Fernández de Lis. Children lose, however, says the president of the employers’ affiliation, adults achieve. “29% of last year’s turnover, and this year I think it has increased, is directed to what we call kidults”, he feedback. “They are really gaining quite a bit of weight in the industry,” agrees the Mattel supervisor, who plans to achieve market share this 12 months.

This section of grown kids not solely helps alleviate the discount within the little one inhabitants, but in addition seasonality. “They are people of a certain age, with a higher purchasing power and who focus more on collecting or even playing, but from a different point of view,” says the chief director of Scalextric, who estimates appreciable development for the corporate. this 12 months. “That collector segment does not have that seasonal limitation. Because they collect all year round,” says the final director of Juguettos, who plans to shut 2024 with the perfect turnover in its historical past and whose Christmas gross sales will probably be round 48%, because of this viewers.

The trade additionally seeks to melt seasonality by highlighting the worth of play past Christmas, by way of initiatives such because the creation of Children’s Day and elevating consciousness. “As a sector, probably in the last 40 years we have not had the ability to convey to consumers the importance of toys as an element of child development,” says the Marketing Director of Cefa Toys, an organization that expects outcomes much like these of final 12 months. . In addition to collective efforts, manufacturers design their very own methods to draw clients and join with them throughout the remainder of the 12 months, equivalent to the event of recent merchandise or synergies with different sectors.

Years in the past, toys started to compete with cellular units for the eye of minors, who deserted conventional proposals sooner. But expertise and video games wouldn’t have to be unique, and may even be mixed. “This year there are products with AI, augmented reality, connected products…” says Salmón. The challenges that digitalization has introduced go additional. “Online shopping has transformed the landscape of retail, the consumer and how much time they spend shopping,” says Marco, who goals at extra knowledgeable consumers. Furthermore, with the migration from tv and conventional catalogs to totally different platforms and codecs, the methods to achieve clients are multiplying. “It is a challenge for marketing professionals to know where children are at all times,” exemplifies Fernández de Lis.

Electronic marketplaces have additionally opened a brand new door to copies and unsafe merchandise. “It represents absolute unfair competition that also contrasts with the demand for regulations that is asked of us,” says Salmón about this style that, for instance, is bought by third events on on-line platforms. According to a report from the European Intellectual Property Office printed this 12 months, the Spanish toy sector misplaced 113 million yearly on common in gross sales between 2018 and 2021 on account of imitations.