Touching Base - Toy Fair 2024 - First time exhibitors

Making the first move

Among the many established names at Toy Fair, each year introduces a slew of new companies. Toy World spoke to a selection of first-time exhibitors to find out what they are hoping to get out of the show.

Edx Education - Heather Welch

As the UK’s largest toy trade show and must-visit destination for buyers, exhibiting at Toy Fair has been on our radar for a few years now. 2024 stood out as the perfect time to make this dream happen, as we have our sights firmly set on building our relationships with toy retailers and becoming a brand families can rely on for high-quality educational toy ranges that make learning fun and engaging this year. We are so delighted that we’ll be there for the 70th anniversary celebrations too.

We started Edx Education more than 25 years ago, with a primary focus on designing and manufacturing educational toys for schools around the world. The boom in home schooling following the pandemic kickstarted a trend for affordable toys that also offer educational value, and so it became apparent that there was a real need for us to extend our offering to consumers and toy retailers.

With this in mind, we have expanded our maths, construction, active play and sensory toy product range for 2024, and launched www.edxeducation.co.uk, which is a trade website for UK buyers. We have also opened a local fulfilment centre, to provide a quick and easy ordering process for customers in the UK and Ireland. We are really looking forward to using this opportunity to strengthen and build our relationships with buyers and introduce them to our extensive learning through play ranges.

Edx Education is far more than a toy brand – we are incredibly passionate about learning through play. We work very closely with educational experts from around the world when designing our product ranges to ensure that we bring education to life in a fun and engaging manner that will instil a lifelong passion for learning.

We design and manufacturer our ranges in our own factories, using original moulds, to ensure consistently high-quality products. We only use the best quality plastics and materials too, to ensure product longevity. Using our own factories also means we are able to keep wholesale costs down for retailers by cutting out the middleman. We are very conscious of our impact on the world, so sustainability is a priority, from our manufacturing processes right through to the end product. We continually seek out innovative new eco-friendly materials for products and packaging, and regularly review manufacturing processes to ensure minimal impact on the environment, while also supporting local ecological charities.

We have become a highly trusted and well-known educational toy brand for schools in more than 110 countries over the past 25 years and are very excited to replicate this reputation in the consumer retail space this year. Our new fulfilment centre will enable us to offer a much wider product range to retailers, with lots of new launches planned throughout 2024. The new trade website and our reliable, helpful and knowledgeable sales team will enable us to offer a seamless service to toy retailers. With more retailers taking on our ranges, we are looking forward to becoming a much-loved toy brand with families around the UK.

BTL Diffusion - Graeme Hargreaves, managing director

We have heard nothing but glowing reviews about the Toy Fair from previous exhibitors and customers, and our products are perfectly suited for this show. Our previous UK shows in different sectors in 2023 have exceeded our expectations, so the team is geared up and excited for Toy Fair. We have four fantastic brands on display at the show: Cloud B is a pioneer in the creation of products designed for children’s well-being and good sleep; the Little Big Friends range is made up of adorable soft animals made from vegan leather; Flipetz are the next (R)evolution in plush toys with a unique two-in-one concept of a fruit or vegetable turning into a soft plush animal and Les Ptipotos is a collection of beautiful soft stuffed animals in monochrome tones.

We have recently launched our business into the UK market and whilst we have had great success across Europe and the US, we are hoping for the same reaction in the UK. Many of our products offer something completely different, and we are excited to be exhibiting at the Toy Fair for the first time, especially on the 70th anniversary. Our team cannot wait to meet everyone.

With numerous brands under our umbrella, we give our customers the opportunity to be selective for their marketplaces in terms of price points, with good, better and best options, as well as offering low MOQs and carriage paid orders. Our products are beautifully designed, premium products at competitive prices and our design and development team are constantly working on new ideas to bring something fun, cute and different to the Toy and Gift industry.

We ‘ve experienced great success with our brands globally in 2023, showcasing our products at multiple exhibitions worldwide. Our recent direct operation in the UK has already seen some phenomenal results and growth in such a short space of time. The feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive with some fantastic projects and announcements coming in 2024. Our aspirations are to see the UK business continue in its upward trajectory, whilst focusing on supporting the independents, department stores and garden centres.

Click Europe - Steve Finch Managing director

We’re so pleased to be exhibiting at Toy Fair for the first time this year; we’ve always visited so we know what a fantastic show it is. Throughout 2023 we’ve been working really hard on expanding our new boppi range of toys for kids aged 18-months to eight-years-old, and as we’re based in London it seemed only right that this be the year we finally took a stand at Toy Fair. We can’t wait to launch our new products and show everyone what we’ve been up to.

Our overriding aim at the show is to meet new buyers and show those that we already work with what we’ve been developing in the background. Our products are always the hero when we exhibit. We’re known for our striking Tiny Trekker luggage cases and beautifully illustrated puzzles: they’re what attracts people to our stand. But in addition to our own brands, we’re also official UK distributors of Playmobil, Hasbro, Squishmallows and many other well-known brands. We’re keen to explain more about this to buyers at the show when they come and visit us.

Thinking further ahead to the whole of 2024, our aspiration is to make boppi a household name. With new games being added to our range in 2024, along with a Unicorn Round puzzle and new display units, we’re excited about the fact retailers to have something fresh and different to take to market.

Imagination Gaming - Will Stewart

This year will be Imagination Gaming’s first full year in the UK market, we see Toy Fair as the perfect launch pad for the business and to get in front of as many retailer partners as possible. Being our first London Toy Fair, our biggest goal is market awareness, showing the industry we are here and highlighting all the great games we are creating and bringing to the UK market.

Our partnership with the online gaming platform Gamestar+ makes us stand out in the market – I think of it as Netflix for game night. It really bridges that gap between the physical and digital game play. Come along and play them for yourself – we will have plenty out to show you with lots of interactivity.

As for our aim this year, we have appreciated all our retailer partnerships in 2023 and have been blown away by their support, so now we are looking to really strengthen these partnerships as well as cultivating new ones in 2024.

Skillmatics - David Kelly VP Sales & Marketing

Skillmatics was only launched in the UK in November 2023, so London toy fair is the perfect platform from which to ‘officially’ launch to the trade. We’ve already had a great response from those that have seen some of our ranges, but we’re keen to speak to as many retailers as possible. Our products are very diverse, cover many categories and have mass appeal regardless of whether you’re a major multinational group or an independent store serving the local community. We have something for everyone.

We create new and exciting kids’ games, family games, arts & crafts and learning activities and everything is designed and manufactured in-house. Because we manufacture in our family-owned facilities based in India, we can design, develop and bring products to market in just a couple of months, making us very versatile and adaptive to the latest trends and fashions.

Along with our award-winning products we also partner with major licences, underpinning our intentions to be a progressive supplier. We’re passionate about what we do and we genuinely want to work with as many retailers as possible. We want consumers to instantly recognise that Skillmatics products offer great value as well as great design. These high-quality products help kids develop and learn as they become young adults whilst also having loads of fun. That's what we are about, and we can only do that if retailers speak to us and give us an opportunity to really make a difference.