Company Profile - Casdon

Casdon - keeping it real

At the start of 2022, role-play specialist Casdon announced a new licensing deal with the aspirational homewares brand Joseph Joseph. The new partnership has seen Casdon develop a range of beautiful new toys featuring truly innovative new elements that bring even more realism to role-play, and both companies are excited for their launch. Rachael Simpson-Jones spoke to Phil Cassidy, managing director at Casdon, as well as the Joseph brothers themselves - Antony and Richard - to find out more.

Phil Cassidy

Joseph Joseph is one of the world’s leading homeware brands with a global presence spanning over 100 countries, and many readers will have seen Casdon’s soon-to-launch Joseph Joseph range on display at Toy Fair 2022. Those familiar with the brand will appreciate its modern aesthetics, bold and intelligent use of colours, and the way its products maximise on space around the home. It’s a hugely popular range, for good reason, and that the two companies have partnered – each a leader in its field - shouldn’t come as a surprise.

While many may have assumed it was Casdon who made the first move in pitching their ideas to Joseph Joseph, it was actually the brothers who reached out to Casdon about working together, not vice versa. Once again, I am reminded not to make assumptions.

Both Antony and Richard have quite young children, Richard explains when asked how the deal came about, and Casdon toys have been a feature around their respective houses for years.

“I love the functionality of Casdon toys, particularly the Dyson Vacuum Cleaners – I’ve bought all of them,” he says. “I’m an ex-Dyson design engineer, so it’s lovely that my kids can play with their own versions of the real things I worked on. However, my kids have also taken a keen interest in playing with the real-life Joseph Joseph products we have at home. Antony and I therefore thought it would be good to talk to Casdon about creating a line that was suitable for children and allowed for maximum play and learning.”

The approach was music to Phil’s ears, who tells me that Casdon is more often than not the one putting in the legwork and chasing potential licensors down. Just as Casdon was well-known to the Joseph brothers, Joseph Joseph was very much on Phil’s radar: he refers to the approach as humbling, a ‘reflection of Casdon’s standing in the market and its reputation with families’. And he was clearly over the moon, telling me he indulged in a brief run around his house, combined with some shouting for joy. There was no doubt in Phil’s mind that the answer would be a resounding yes. The Joseph Joseph brand, Richard explains, is all about functionality. Colour is used to show consumers what goes where, and how - Phil tells us his Nest Lock Container Set saves him precious time each morning as he no longer has to search for the correct size lid for his lunchbox - and colour also forms an integral part of each product’s look. Happily, this use of colour also translates beautifully into toys. Casdon’s ethos has always been to create quality role-play products with a cutting-edge design element, and in Joseph Joseph, the company has found the perfect marriage of fun and function.

Antony and Richard Joseph

“I’ve been in the toy and licensing business for a long time, and Casdon counts a lot of major homeware brands in its portfolio,” says Phil. “But Joseph Joseph, with its use of colour, brings something different to the table. Except for some of our Kenwood range, most of our previous toys have been for imaginary role-play, but Casdon’s Joseph Joseph range can actually be used by the child in its proper setting in the same way the full-scale version can.”

One such product, available in the launch range, is Joseph Joseph Bake. This colourful set features four interlocking measuring cups, a large mixing bowl, twist whisk, egg spatula and ergonomic rolling pin that kids can use to bake real delicacies. Phil notes that following the enormous popularity of baking during the pandemic, the Bake set will particularly appeal to consumers who have discovered a new (or renewed) love of baking with their kids. The Joseph Joseph Extend, meanwhile, takes water play to a whole new level. Designed and officially licensed to look just like the real thing, the Joseph Joseph Extend set comes complete with a wash bowl and tray to capture small spills while water can be pumped from the bowl through the dispenser and back again for endless play. The set includes a Cleantech brush, Extend dish rack and cutlery, plus plates and bowls which change colour when added to water for enhanced play value.

Antony Joseph says the product design process which the company has been through with Casdon’s R&D team has been an enlightening experience. The brothers are very aware of what the typical Joseph Joseph customer needs and wants, although designing products for kids has been very much a step into the unknown for the business. The process has yielded some big leaps in role-play innovation. A case in point, the Chop2Pot play set features the iconic Joseph Joseph folding chopping board and Elevate knife as well as four choppable play foods: an onion, tomato, carrot and potato. These foods showcase Casdon’s innovative new product technology, ChopPop. The play food fits together with a trademark ‘pop’ sound, allowing kids to safely chop the food, then pop it back together.

“For obvious reasons, we couldn’t just create a chopping board and kid-safe knife with nothing to chop up, which is why we then invented the ChopPop foods,” explains Phil. “We knew we had to introduce something completely new, something that hasn’t been done before. There’s lots of play food out there that uses Velcro or magnets to stick the parts together, but the ChopPop technology is just so beautifully simple: the male and female parts lock together and pop apart. I was so impressed when that idea came across my desk from the R&D team.”

In addition to the Chop2Pot, Bake and Extend sets mentioned above, Casdon’s Joseph Joseph launch range also includes the Elevate, Nest and Go Eat, bringing the total SKUs to six. This selection was made based on existing best-sellers and products with the most widespread distribution: those products most likely to already be in parents’ homes and admired by children. Functionality also played a big part in the decision-making process. Throughout, the Joseph brothers have been committed to designing toys that help kids learn through play, and they’ve leant into Casdon’s expertise in this area to ensure each product does just that.

Casdon has always strived to offer role-play toys that are realistic - toys that allow kids to emulate their parents or caregivers and truly make them feel like a grown-up. Phil notes that kids are surrounded by brands in the home and want to enjoy those brands for themselves, and the Joseph Joseph range arguably taps into this more than any other Casdon toy range. He also says that role-play toys tend to be bought by a grown-up as a gift for a child, grandchild, niece or nephew, meaning adults familiar with the real-life brand notice and appreciate it when the same quality and value for money carries through into replicas. This is why Casdon has become a household name in its own right. As Phil puts it, the closer a toy is to the real thing, the happier everyone is.

The reception to Casdon’s Joseph Joseph range has been overwhelmingly positive, with strong selections across a raft of leading retailers. One of the many benefits of such a highly collaborative relationship is that each company’s marketing team can work alongside the other to raise awareness and drum up excitement pre-launch, tapping into the different audiences each has amassed over the years to spread the word as far as possible. Free giveaways will be a part of the marketing mix, Phil tells us, supported by significant online advertising across social media. “We’re so excited about the launch,” enthuses Richard. “The range is a huge endorsement of what we’re doing, and toys is a completely new market for us, so we’ll be pushing the message hard across our own social channels. Casdon’s Joseph Joseph toys are such high-quality items. We’ll be so proud to see them out there on retailers’ shelves.”

Phil says the range will offer retailers something ‘completely new and different’ that nobody else has: “No company has ever turned a range like this into toys – go and look for something similar in the marketplace. It isn’t there. It doesn’t exist. This is why I am convinced this range will be incredibly successful. Joseph Joseph screams ‘toy’.”

Richard, meanwhile, is particularly excited by the international footprint of both Casdon and Joseph Joseph, and how that could translate into performance. He sees the range making its way into major retailers in Europe and the US as well as the UK and Ireland, and also sees scope for broadening the distribution of the range even beyond those territories.

Speaking to the trio, the enthusiasm about this new partnership, which brings two successful British businesses together, is palpable - all that remains to be seen is whether Casdon’s Joseph Joseph range can cook up the success it so thoroughly deserves.