Best Sellers

■ Squishmallows

■ Pokémon

■ LankyBox

Squishmallows, Pokémon, LankyBox, Aphmau, and many others - all of which our customers are going mad for, and we have good stocks to fulfill that demand.

How has trading been for you so far this year?

Trade is currently +11.2% versus 2022. But we have noticed it getting tougher over the past couple of weeks.

I believe we’ve done a brilliant job to get ourselves into this position. But families have huge demands on them financially at the moment, with energy costs, holidays to pay off, and prices of most things increasing wherever you look.

It will be a tough few months ahead, but we’re confident of our current sales, and our aim is to hold the growth we’ve seen in the first part of the year, and continue to drive sales across all of the stores.

One of our key aims is to have good stock levels of our FOB and promotional items in all stores. We’ve been reviewing the sales data and the trend would suggest that people are looking for a bargain, be it a branded item at a lower price or a good quality unbranded product. So it’s key for us to ensure we capture these sales.

What are your hopes for the summer?

Summer stock is always very interesting to study for our business. We carry a nice tight range of all the usual products you would expect to find in a toy store, and this range works well for us.

The sun is currently shining brightly outside and my forearms are nice and pink after a lazy Sunday sipping cold beer, so we look forward to seeing a nice spike in our pools, water guns and outdoor games stock soon! Long may it continue.

What are your predictions for the festive season?

Christmas is the really exciting time for us retailers, and it feels like this year there is plenty to go at in terms of newness to keep kids’ Christmas lists nice and full - driving their parents mad.

I particularly love the new toys that are coming out this year. In particular I love Bitzee from Spin Master; and Cookeez Makery, Bio Beasts, and Little Live Pets’ My Puppy’s Home - three awesome products from Moose Toys. These will definitely be on my kids’ Christmas lists this year!

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

The most rewarding aspect is working with such a great team. As I mentioned earlier, our aim is to provide a service to our customers in the local community where our stores are based, to make profit to allow us to continue to do this, and to do what we are passionate about. And although things can get stressful and extremely busy, we are doing that daily.

I know that when I take my kids into one of our stores, they love shopping the various sections (usually creating a bit of a mess at the same time) and choosing a toy that they treasure. This is what it’s all about for us.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

Contrary to the above, the most challenging part is making the profit to allow us to continue to do what we are passionate about. We are under pressure from every aspect: reduced customer spend, increasing costs of staffing and running costs… It all mounts up to squeeze an already very tight profit percentage.

What’s your all-time favourite toy or game?

It has to be LEGO. Even as an adult, I still get a set or two every Christmas, and thoroughly enjoy spending a few hours building and displaying them at my desk (mainly because my wife won’t allow me to have them in the house).

It brings back fond memories of building one of the LEGO castles (a Wolf Castle if my mind is accurate) on Christmas Day when I was a young lad.