Special Feature Tesco & The Entertainer

Adding value at Tesco

In September, The Entertainer announced it had forged a new trial partnership with Tesco which would see the specialist toy retailer’s expertise and merchandising leveraged in a selection of Tesco’s aisles in time for the peak Christmas shopping season. As the speedy roll-out of all 35 branded concessions reached its final days, Toy World publisher John Baulch and editor Rachael Simpson-Jones paid The Entertainer’s founder and executive chairman Gary Grant and CEO Mark Campbell a visit to find out more about the partnership.

Gary Grant

Mark Campbell

Following a whistle-stop tour of The Entertainer’s impressive Amersham offices, John, Rachael, Gary and Mark got down to business – coffee, and a discussion on the nature of normality within the retail channel. Retailers, suppliers and consumers alike are all living in the time of the New Normal: the internet has changed the face of shopping forever, and the costof-living crisis has changed consumer’s approach to spending, at very least in the short term.

Coming into 2022, Gary tells us, he anticipated a more ‘stable and consistent’ year, the word ‘normal’ no longer being part of his lexicon. Expectations for the period largely hinged on prevailing economic factors: ultimately, container prices haven’t fallen fast enough to offset the rising cost of raw materials and the impact of a devalued pound. The unusually packed 2022 film slate gave the Entertainer’s buying team much to look forward to, with properties such as Jurassic World living up to their promise in terms of toy sales, and while online sales have fallen slightly compared to 2020 – in large part due to the ability to enjoy an in-store toy shopping experience once more - they nonetheless remain higher than they were in 2019. However, the return to pre-pandemic everyday life glimpsed in the early part of the year has subsequently been derailed by economic turbulence and soaring prices on just about everything. The result, Gary explains, is a softer start to Q4 than hoped, though there are silver linings.

“I would imagine a percentage of our customers no longer have much in the way of disposable income or are even underwater in the face of their household bills, and unfortunately, that means that for those people, toys are now a luxury,” Gary tells us. “Web sales are holding up extraordinarily well though: we’re seeing fewer transactions, but more than twice as many items in each basket.” Mark adds that a number of very strong Saturday performances from The Entertainer’s physical stores, combined with excellent online business, indicate that Christmas started early again this year, perhaps driven, in part, by parents wanting to secure their kids’ presents before October’s big rise in energy bills really started to make itself felt.

Of course, The Entertainer’s new concession deal with Tesco offers consumers a new way to get their hands on top toys for Christmas. The partnership between the toy retailer and the major UK supermarket chain has seen a trial launch take place in 35 stores across the UK. The Entertainer will retain full oversight of product range, pricing and merchandising across the stores, and will run free-ofcharge and all-year-round events, plus character visits for children of all ages. At the time of our interview, the concessions were in place in 34 stores, and the 35th was being finalised – and Mark and Gary told us the rollout had got off to a superb start.

Many of us can relate to buying things at the supermarket that weren’t on our lists, and as we get closer to Christmas it makes sense that Tesco shoppers will head to the tills with toys and games they didn’t set out to buy - but couldn’t resist picking up from The Entertainer’s impressive concessions.

“Tesco is an absolute delight to work with, and our values and culture are very similar,” enthused Gary. “The Tesco store managers have really embraced our Entertainer staff with candidness and flexibility, and we can all see that there’s something very exciting taking place.”

The installation of the concessions has taken just three weeks, allowing the toy specialist to get ahead of the peak festive buying season by completing its branded aisles and placing promotional items in Tesco’s ‘power aisles’ bang on schedule.

Under the terms of the deal, The Entertainer will be using its own trucks to handle distribution of toys to the 35 Tesco stores. This means it’s not having to jostle for hard-won space on food lorries, a move Gary is calling his ‘secret weapon’. The Entertainer will also be responsible for stock, merchandising and pricing, plus customer service and advice: it’s not just toys the retailer is placing into Tesco’s aisles, but its own knowledge and expertise in the form of highly trained team members. Another major benefit for Tesco is the fact The Entertainer is more loosely planogrammed by comparison. This means out of stock lines can be swiftly filled with other toys and games, plugging what would otherwise be a noticeable gap on the shelf.

“When The Entertainer talks about partnerships, it does so knowing what the word means and what it stands for,” he elaborates. “We are keen for this to be a success for Tesco, because if it’s good for them, it’s good for us. Standards in store have to be high and the experience has to be memorable. We’ve got a limited amount of space and we’ve got to work it as hard as we can. Three weeks in, we’re already critiquing the ranges, swapping out anything that’s not performing to expectations and quickly bringing in other lines that we believe could sell through more strongly. Already we’ve realised some packaging that isn’t arranged in a tray simply isn’t suited to Tesco’s display format. Anything designed to be hung falls over easily on-shelf. It’s all being assessed and monitored, day in, day out.”

Amersham’s Tesco Superstore is one of the 35 stores taking part in the trial, ostensibly because it’s so close to The Entertainer’s base of operations. So close, in fact, Gary likes to pop in on his lunch breaks to neaten the shelves and assess stock levels – and even help customers decide what toys to buy in what might be one of the most amusing undercover personal shopper services Toy World has ever come across. After the sitdown part of our interview, Gary headed down to the Amersham store - with John and Rachael in tow - to show off The Entertainer’s concession. What we saw was an immaculately arranged, well-stocked and eyecatching two aisles of toys and games, from pocket money and arts & crafts to interactive plush and big play sets. We also saw Gary in action, returning toys moved by consumers to their correct places and shelf wobblers to their 90-degree angles.

Gary is obviously not the only one taking such pride in The Entertainer’s Tesco concessions. Store managers from those Entertainer locations closest to trial Tesco stores have been awarded the concessions to oversee as a kind of pet project, giving them a sense of ownership over the trial.

For now, though, it’s all eyes on the next few weeks: increasing the density of Tesco’s toy sales, expanding the range of toys on offer, and improving the customer experience in-store to ensure this Christmas produces the supermarket’s best ever Toy category performance. If anyone can pull that off, The Entertainer can.