Company Profile
Skillmatics
growing up
and having fun Toy World caught up with David Kelly, VP Sales & Marketing at Skillmatics, to hear about how the company has achieved its continued growth and what it is has to offer retailers and consumers.
D
avid has been involved in learning through play for the past eight years, having worked with Depesche UK and Magformers before joining Skillmatics in August. He tells Toy World: “Through my career, I have been seeing firsthand the importance of learning through play; with Skillmatics, it's almost like subliminal learning. First and foremost, we love to see kids laughing and having fun using the products. When this happens, we know that they are absorbing skills and aspects of learning much more effectively than sitting in a one-to-one environment and being told things that they expected to learn. Skillmatics is about growing up and having fun, but if you can achieve that while also providing key elements of learning that kids will pick up intuitively and easily, without them really knowing they are learning, that has to be a win win.”
Founded in 2016, Skillmatics has continued to see growth, which is something David has found encouraging; even through challenging times, beginning with Covid and followed by the cost of living crisis, the company has been enjoying success. The team ensures its offering remains relevant to current circumstances, and right now, recognising that families are “feeling the pinch”, the majority of Skillmatics products being launched in the UK are at a sub-£15 RRP. The company continuously analyses data and looks at what extra content can be brought to products while keeping them at this key price point. David says: “Now, more than ever, parents want their money to stretch as far as it can, in terms of what they invest in for their kids.” The company has met this demand by creating a range of good-value, quality educational products which can be used time and again. “I think parents are also willing to pay a bit extra,” David adds, “as long as they know they're getting really good value. And I think consumers are starting to see through certain large online platforms, with an influx of cheap products copying more expensive lines from leading brands. Consumers were duped a little bit by that at first, thinking they were getting the same products much, much cheaper, but then the products didn’t last. Now, we're seeing a transition, with shoppers returning to established brands, or really strong emerging brands, and they're being a lot more selective, looking closely at things like sustainability, quality, play value and content.” The standout seller at Skillmatics is Guess In 10, a family game which David describes as simple but very effective. A card game where players have 10 questions to try to guess a character or animal, with different buzz words, clue cards and strategies, about three million units have been sold over the last two years. There are different variations such as Animals or Dinosaurs, and more recently a licensed Marvel version has seen “phenomenal” sales. Building on this success, Skillmatics is soon to launch a Harry Potter version that it is expecting to be in high demand, and recently secured a licence for Disney. Foil Fun has boosted Skillmatics’ presence in the Arts & Crafts sector. This new product has already been shortlisted for best Creative Toy in the TOTY awards. A mess-free kit with 100 stickers to arrange on a picture canvas, it is also the No. 3 Arts & Crafts toy on Amazon. Other best-sellers include the Search and Find activity floor mat and the Seek and Splash underwater game. With success to date in family and children’s games,
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Skillmatics’ will be now expanding into adult games, under the Gouda Games brand. “We want to be more cutting edge and provide a bigger reach for retailers,” explains David. “We see adult games as a growing sector.” When Skillmatics first launched, sales were driven primarily through Amazon. Once the brand found its feet and started to reach customers on a global scale, the company decided to take its success into an offline offering. To ensure products look good on shelf, all Skillmatics products are supplied with Parksons Packaging, from one of India’s leading packaging solutions providers, which also works with the likes of Spin Master, McDonald’s and Hasbro. All products are manufactured in India, with excellent product quality, enabling the company to launch products at a much faster rate than traditional incumbents, which David says is a huge advantage. He tells us: “Using these factories means that we can create really sustainable evergreen products using less than 10% plastics. The majority of the products are recyclable as well.” Asked why retailers should consider working with Skillmatics, David concludes: “We're producing really cost-effective products with great content and made to an incredibly high standard, offering retailers a really good margin and offering consumers a really low suggested selling price.” To find out more, David can be reached on 07764 369 245 or david.kelly@skillmaticsworld.com.
