The Big Interview: Ideas International

Above: Isabella recently gifted ten Little Tikes Travellers to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Below: Simon and Isabella King run Ideas International together… “He’s my role model,” says Isabella.

BRIGHT IDEAS

Launching a travel product just before a global pandemic wouldn’t be an ideal situation for anyone. But it was where Ideas International found itself at the beginning of 2020. Anyone who has met Isabella King, brand development manager at the company, though, will tell you it would take far more than that to bring her down. PPS finds out more about the journey so far.

Isabella King has grown up in the world of licensing. Her father, Simon King, ran Custom Accessories Europe, and was behind the Jelly Bean car air fresheners, among many other household licensed products.

Isabella, brand development manager at Ideas International says: “My dad is in licensing, so osmosis has definitely given me the knowledge. I think my sister and I knew what FOB was at the age of seven.

“I’m so proud of my dad, he’s a really great guy, he’s humble and always very helpful. It’s so nice to be in the same industry to carry on his legacy.”

When Simon was in a meeting with MGA

Entertainment he had no idea it would be the start of the father/daughter duo working together and creating Ideas International. Isabella explains: “Dad was looking to do some licensing with MGA, and made a joke with them asking where their ride-on case was, because I’d said it to him previously. It was said as a joke and it has transpired into this. “We put the idea together originally through my dad’s company, but he sold that around three years ago to Energiser. So he spun it off into

Right: Ideas International has # orders from big retailers for next year, including Tesco.

Ideas International, and MGA really went for it.”

At the time, Isabella was working in Switzerland. She continues: “I was really invested in the company, so I was nannying, I was doing my law degree and I was running the company. In the end, I had to give up the kids, which was so sad. I really wished I could do all of it, but I can’t.”

The Little Tikes Traveller – a ride-on case based on MGA Entertainment’s iconic Cosy Coupe design – was launched officially at Spring Fair 2020. Isabella tells PPS: “We were doing really quite well, and we’d had our first order for Smyths come through. We got that in, and then COVID. It was awful.

“So last year, I had to rebrand the entire concept as a lifestyle product instead of travel. So when we won the Best Kids Lifestyle Range Award [at the Progressive Preschool Awards], it was great.”

Isabella now works between Switzerland and London, which has been beneficial during Brexit. She furthers: “After Brexit, it made it so much easier to work within Europe. A lot of the buyers here are much more open to a call, because I have a Swiss phone number. I’ve found they’re much more proactive within the EU.”

As well as the difficulties of Brexit, Ideas International has, like many, struggled with freight issues. Isabella explains: “It’s been really tough. Containers have more than quadrupled in price. It used to be $2-3 per unit for our product, and it’s now $20. I spoke to my dad and said now is not the time to be pushing product, we need to sit back, market it for a relaunch and come back to it in spring 2022. If we sent them out now, we’d be making a loss.”

There’s been other bumps along the road, as Isabella outlines: “There were so many things that I didn’t expect to come up against. For example people had surplus stock from competitors, because obviously they weren’t selling, so the retailers didn’t have space.”

Isabella’s track record, however, shows that challenges don’t stop her. A near death experience while travelling in Australia gave her the clarity to forge ahead. She remembers: “I made myself a promise that if I came out of hospital, not only to make something of my life, but also to give back.

“So now, I’m here running this, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to give back. I want to do scholarship programmes and give to charity. I came back and instead of just trying to be successful at absolutely everything I was trying to do, I took a step back, focused on myself and re-evaluated. And everything started to work. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

Getting stronger is exactly what it looks like the future is for Ideas International. Currently offering one product, there are many more plans to develop lines in different sectors and with new licensors.

Isabella comments: “We’ve got quite a lot of projects going forward into next year. I think it’s going to be the start of something really great. There will definitely be more work with MGA. I think they are a brilliant company.

“We have the travel sector and we are definitely going to continue with this, but we also have a new product which we think will be a completely new section in licensing. I have everything ready to go in early January. Ideas International is not just one product in one industry, it’s not just travel or lifestyle, it’s Ideas International. So we are going to expand on a much broader spectrum with our own products, which we can also licence out.”

Above: At the age of eight, Isabella used to dream about accepting an award in business. Left: Isabella had to give up her nannying job to focus on the company, but still sees the children a lot. Below: Isabella as a toddler with her very own Cosy Coupe.