Industry Moves

MGA Entertainment names Michelle Lilley as new marketing director

Michelle Lilley has been promoted to marketing director UK and Ireland for MGA Entertainment UK, having previously been the head of marketing for Little Tikes. The role took effect from January 2022.

In her new post, Michelle will lead all UK brand marketing teams, which includes celebrated brands such as L.O.L. Surprise!, Little Tikes, Rainbow High and Na! Na! Na! Surprise. The company says her primary objective will be to focus on building core business strategies and leading the charge to turn these strategies into compelling product lines, launches and business-building communications.

Michelle’s passion for the industry began over 20 years ago, when she worked for three years in a Toymaster store, balancing the role with her studies. Since then, her experience has been rooted in consumer goods marketing, and the new role follows her time at Little Tikes, where she rose through the ranks from marketing manager to head of Marketing, leading the team to deliver bold and strategic campaigns for over eight years.

Michelle said: “I am thrilled to take on such an exciting opportunity. I began working at MGA in 2013, leading on marketing for Little Tikes. I’m very excited to take this next step in my career at MGA and continue working with an incredible team on some of the UK’s leading toy brands.”

MGA and Zapf part ways with Neil Bandtock

MGA Entertainment and Zapf Creation have announced that Neil Bandtock has resigned to seek new opportunities, following 15 months as the managing director for UK & Ireland. The company said it was thankful to Neil for his hard work over the past year, undertaken during extremely challenging circumstances for the industry, and wishes him well in his future endeavours.

Marcel Deveny, VP Sales and Marketing EMEA, will cover the role in the interim period with the support of the UK management team. He stated: “I am really looking forward to leading and supporting the MGA Entertainment and Zapf teams across the UK and Ireland, working in close collaboration with our retail partners to drive the full potential of our brands.”

As the company heads into what it calls ‘an exciting and ground-breaking new year’, plans are underway to break NPD records for market-leading brands including L.O.L. Surprise!, Baby born and Baby Annabell, Rainbow High, and the No. 1 outdoor brand, Little Tikes. MGA stated: “With massive product innovation across the board and a host of new brands ready to disrupt the market later this year, 2022 is set to be the biggest and most exciting year to date.”

Kidicraft expands sales team to support long-term growth

Bob Duxbury

Craig Kidd

David Neale

Steve Davies

Sarah Hobbs

Victoria Wilkinson

Trish Easter

Kidicraft is kickstarting 2022 with the addition of seven new sales agents, taking the team to 11 in total.

The company has welcomed Bob Duxbury, sales agent for the North East; Craig Kidd, business development manager; Steve Davies, sales agent for Wales; Trish Easter, sales agent for the South West, and Sarah Hobbs, sales agent for the Midlands. Working alongside Craig Kidd will be David Neale, and Sarah Hobbs will be joined by Victoria Wilkinson to strengthen those areas further.

Bob Duxbury was first introduced to the sales industry by his father who worked for Rosebud Mattel when Mattel first came to the UK, and brings a wealth of puzzle knowledge with him having worked for Gibsons for 31 years.

Craig Kidd will be focusing on Kidicraft’s key account customers and working closely with David Neale. Craig has worked in the industry for over two years, while David Neale is now into his fourth year within the toy industry.

Steve Davies brings with him over 25 years of experience within the gift, toy and greetings industry, while Trish Easter has spent 16 years working in the gift industry.

Sarah Hobbs and Victoria Wilkinson are lifelong friends and have worked together in the gift industry for many years covering the Midlands. They feel that Kidicraft’s portfolio is the perfect addition for their customers and are looking forward to showcasing the company’s range of jigsaw puzzles.

The new agents are joining Kidicraft at an exciting time with new product launches from Star Wars, Marvel and Discovery, plus a worldwide licence agreement with Hornby.

2022 is expected to be another year of expansion for Kidicraft and the new additions to the sales team are set to support this growth.

Amscan adds to product and marketing teams

Mike Hurst

Beth Tippite

Sam Ingle

Party product supplier Amscan International has expanded its product and marketing teams with three new hires.

The Milton Keynes based company has a turnover of £200m and employs 2,500 people worldwide, following the purchase of German foil balloon printing technology business Luftballon-Markt last August and UK party brand Ginger Ray in October.

Following her recent graduation in Product Design, Beth Tippite has joined the creative design team as both product and marketing designer; Sam Ingle has joined as Party Product Executive, with his previous experience allowing him to focus on product from a 360-degree vantage point, and Mike Hurst has joined the Educational Marketing team as Training and Education Executive. Along with Chris Horne and Jacob Megram, he forms part of the expert Balloon Education team, holding seminars and training both virtually and in person.

Jen Wilson, head of Product, Design and Marketing at Amscan, said: “We are really excited to be able to welcome the new members of the team and expand the Amscan family further. They are already proving to enhance an already fantastic team and we’re really excited for the future of our category.”

New year appointments at Halilit

Marjo Cako

Damien Leahy

Adam Wale

Halilit kicked off 2022 with the addition of two new members of staff to its rapidly growing team. Following the recruitment of Adam Wale as eCommerce manager a few months ago, Marjo Cako has joined the company as logistics and demand planner, whilst Damien Leahy bolsters the sales team as key account manager.

Halilit says the new roles have been created at a time of growth for the pre-school specialist. Amy Wildman, Halilit sales manager, commented: “Despite the challenges of the past couple of years Halilit has experienced a fantastic trading period, in part due to the variety of our customers, the acquisition of Dodo puzzles, and also the excellent reputation our brands have among consumers. We’re thrilled to have such talent joining us, to help with our ambitious growth plans over the next few years.”

The new starters joined Halilit as the company was set to unveil its refreshed branding, and whilst development of a new trade ordering platform, which will allow retailers to log in, see what’s new and hot and to place reorders, is also underway.

Amy added: “Alongside revitalising our online access for trade customers, Adam will be ensuring that our customers with their own web presence have access to the very best optimised content, whilst Marjo brings a wealth of experience in planning and analysis, skills that have become all the more critical amidst longer shipping and lead times.

Damien joins us with a fantastic reputation within the industry and is looking forward to getting in touch with his customers to see how he can help grow brands such as Halilit music and Taf Toys.”

Funrise marks European expansion with new appointments

Benn Bramwell

Annie Sullivan

Funrise International has appointed two new general managers for Europe and expanded its international team to support its international growth strategy.

Annie Sullivan has become general manager, UK, Northern Europe & MEA, effective from December and will now be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the UK/Ireland region as well as the EMEA territory. She had spent the past five years at Funrise as commercial director EMEA and, in her new role, will expand her leadership across the whole of Northern Europe and continue to develop the MEA business along with the support of her team.

“During Annie’s time at Funrise, she has been able to grow the EMEA business exponentially with various licensed and IP brands within our portfolio. I’m confident she and her team will continue to build the business even further and grow our company’s distribution,” said Martin Good, senior vice president, International.

Sebastien Cardi stepped into the newly created role of general manager, Southern Europe on 1st January and is now responsible for the entirety of Southern Europe. Since joining Funrise in 2017, he has worked to grow the business and achieve distribution for Funrise’s products across all retailers within the French market.

Martin added: “Sebastien's proven leadership skills in tackling the very tough but growing French business will see his responsibilities expand across the whole of Southern Europe.”

To help support the company’s international growth, Benn Bramwell has joined the Funrise team as marketing manager UK & EMEA. He will work closely with the Global Brand Team and be responsible for implementing marketing strategies across all functions,

including linear, digital and social media planning, as well as trade marketing, PR and the eCommerce business.

Annie Sullivan said: “We are very excited to welcome Benn to the Funrise team to help drive our global brand strategies and grow our business in Europe even further.”