4 minute read
Retail Interview - with Alan Wright, category lead for toys & books at John Lewis & Partners
Exciting plans
John Lewis & Partners Category Lead for Toys & Books Alan Wright is looking forward to a strong summer season and is impatient for Autumn/Winter to arrive!
What’s your background? I've been at John Lewis for just over 17 years, working across multiple categories. I started out as the merchandiser for Christmas Shop & Gift Food (the year of the Black Tree, if you can remember that far back?). But the majority of my career has been spent as the senior merchandiser for Beauty, where we introduced our first concessions and doubled the size of the business in eight years. I was appointed category lead for toys & books in August 2021 and it's fair to say the first season was certainly lively!
Tell us a bit about John Lewis & Partners. We sell toys in 30 John Lewis locations and 150 Waitrose locations, with exciting plans to make toys available in more Alan Wright
shops across both brands in Autumn/Winter.
How would you describe your range? We don't have the largest toy departments in the UK, so we have to carefully curate our ranges to ensure we have a mix of the most popular lines and things you wouldn't find anywhere else.
I want our toy offer to appeal to the whole family; making it easy for those who have lists to fulfil and fun for the kids (who write the lists!).
How many brands do you carry? Amazingly, we sell more than 100 brands across our shops and johnlewis.com, with plans to add 17 more this Autumn/Winter.
How many suppliers do you deal with? I'm pleased to say we have long-standing relationships with all the largest toy suppliers. I'm also very proud to see how some of those relationships have developed over time, moving from us taking just a few of their lines, to them being some of our largest suppliers.
How do you find products? As a team we attended the London Toy Fair this year - it was the most exhilarating and exhausting three days. We now know to leave ourselves time to breathe next time!
In terms of finding products, it's been a mix so far of seeing new things at Toy Fair, Googling toy trends to see what's hot, and finding out what my friends’ kids are playing with.
What’s proving popular at the moment? It's been really pleasing to see so many of our key brands in growth: LEGO, VTech, Micro Scooters, Barbie, Melissa & Doug and Hot Wheels are all trading well. And I mustn't forget our own brand range - it's our second largest brand!
What lines have you started stocking recently? We have recently expanded our 'wheels' offer based on customer feedback, which is delivering
more than expected. We were known for selling scooters, and I'm pleased we could add skateboards, roller skates and a bike subscription service to the range.
Have you been affected by stock shortages - and if so, how have you dealt with that? Stock shortages certainly made for an interesting first peak for me and the team! We got through it by sourcing alternatives (where possible) and redirecting web traffic away from out-of-stock lines to products we did have. Our own brand was as affected and so - as a business - we chartered our own boats to move our stock from China.
What are you looking forward to stocking for the summer? Predictably, it's all about Outdoor! So, I'm looking forward to seeing how our expanded 'wheels' category performs, plus seeing how customers react to our first range of bouncy castles, along with a larger outdoor toy range.
What are you most excited about for the A/W season? I'm quite impatient, so I'd like A/W to arrive now! This is the first season that my new team and I have fully curated, so I'm most excited to see how our 17 new brands perform. We have some very exciting plans for Christmas too, but I'll have to keep quiet about those for now.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job? I love the dynamism of this category and how every supplier I meet is keen to give something a go. My team and I are all newcomers to this category, and it's been great to build on what we've all learned in our previous categories and to help them develop.
What’s your personal favourite toy and game?
My favourite game is easy: UNO. I absolutely love to play it with my nephews and niece although I’m regularly destroyed! As a kid, I had a huge number of Matchbox cars and Transformers. As an adult, I wouldn't have said that I had a favourite toy prior to joining this category... However, I do now own a few LEGO items.
