Company Profile - Jazwares

Squishful thinking

As Jazwares looks forward to celebrating its 25th anniversary and the 10th year of its UK office, Toy World catches up with senior vice president, Europe, Jonny Taylor and managing director of UK & Nordics, Holly Oldham, to chat about the year ahead, the runaway successes of Squishmallows, direct distribution of the Pokémon range and further European expansion.

Jonny Taylor

Holly Oldham

Jazwares enjoyed a recordbreaking year in 2021, fuelled by its phenomenal portfolio of brands and with a host of new launches in the pipeline, another bumper year is on the cards for 2022.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, increased sales and expansion of the UK office have seen the Jazwares team nearly double in size. Bringing in resources to support the growth, which will continue as the range carries on expanding, has been a huge focus for the company.

Holly Oldham, managing director UK & Nordics, says that the pandemic has undoubtedly driven an increase in demand. However, she ultimately attributes Jazwares’ success to “having the right brands with some great products.” She adds that much of the company’s growth in recent years has come from acquisitions made by the company, with Wicked Cool Toys in 2019 followed by Kelly Toy in 2020, a move which brought the Squishmallows brand into the fold.

“A real highlight for us has been growing the business every year in the UK over the last nine years, and we are confident, based on the product portfolio we have, and traction at retail, that next year will be our 10th growth year in a row,” adds SVP Jonny Taylor.

“The thing that I’m probably most proud of is the quality of product that Jazwares has been making, right from when the company started 25 years ago – and the product is getting stronger and stronger. We are adding more and more innovation, and I feel we are delivering the right play value in the properties that we are managing for every single brand.”

Over recent years, Jazwares has enjoyed particular success with properties related to the video games space with brands such as Roblox and Fortnite. Another phenomenal success has been Pokémon, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year and for which Jazwares is master toy manufacturing partner. As of this month (January), the UK office will bring the distribution rights for the UK and Ireland in-house and will also take over distribution for German-speaking territories.

“Pokémon is an absolutely phenomenal brand which is on fire at the moment,” says Jonny. “We have a very exciting product range coming for 2022 and onwards, and we are excited to now be working with retailers and servicing their needs directly, with one of the most exciting properties on the planet right now.”

Pokémon will be one of the main focuses for London Toy Fair at the end of this month and Jazwares is also hugely excited for the continued success of Squishmallows and Squishville in 2022.

“Squishmallows has been a phenomenal success and I think 2022 is when we are really going to see it ignite in the marketplace,” says Holly.

Last year, Jazwares launched its squishy brand extension, Squishville, introducing the UK’s first all-plush play sets.

The brand releases product every 12 weeks to keep the line fresh and ensure it is driving high engagement with the collector base, maintaining a steady flow of fans visiting toy stores and purchasing online. Another key component of the brand’s marketing strategy is social media and with 5.5b posts across social media platforms, this has also been pivotal in driving sales.

“The advantage of social media is that we are able to learn from it and obtain real fan data, which is now coming through in some of the new product ranges,” says Holly. “For instance, we are introducing a new Food Squad, which the fans seem to love.”

Jazwares will also be launching a number of licensed collaborations for Squishmallows in 2022 and says more will be revealed at Toy Fair.

There’s also more to come from the Spidey & His Amazing Friends range, along with Jazwares’ video game based brands which are enjoying continued growth and innovation, as Jonny explains: “It’s our fifth year working with Roblox in 2022, it is a high performance growth brand, which still has a lot more to offer. For Fortnite we are also launching, for spring/summer, a micro range, with 2.5inch action figures with scaled vehicles and playset environments, which complement our core 4inch scale, targeting s slightly lower age group.

Looking forward to 2022, Jonny adds that the company is greatly encouraged by its previews that have all gone incredibly well; as a result, the team is confident of a strong year ahead.

“The business has a lot of forward momentum,” says Jonny, explaining that there are three layers to Jazwares’ business which will be fuelling growth. The first is that it has a strong licensing portfolio where the brands are all performing well; the second is that the company is investing heavily in developing its own private IPs, working on broader IP propositions, which will come to fruition from 2023 onwards.

The third area for growth is expansion of the company with more acquisitions. “We will continue on our acquisition trail, finding interesting businesses that allow us to scale the business and complement our broader offering,” Jonny adds.

As well as expansion of the UK business, Jazwares is also anticipating strong growth across Europe, as well as globally, and the company says its business model in Germany and Germanspeaking regions is also expected to increase sales in 2022. In December 2021 Jazwares announced the opening of a new sales office in Paris to service the French market.

“We already work with every major retailer in France, however, what is going to take things to the next level is having talented professionals in market who can work closely with retailers, so we can service their individual demands, really engaging with high calibre retail executions and dialling up the marketing,” says Jonny, adding that Jazwares works with best-in-class distribution partners right across Europe.

Holly adds: “We ensure we are working with the right partners for the right brands and are maximising all channels. It’s a massive year ahead, both for Jazwares and for our distribution partners.”

Integral to the ongoing success of the company, Holly and Jonny stress, is the team of dedicated, talented professionals who continue to innovate and produce high quality product. “We have such a fantastic team and in 2021 they really pulled together,” says Jonny. “From a cultural standpoint, it’s a business that generates teams which are young, dynamic and have true accountability. We have a culture of success with a strong bond and team spirit, which makes Jazwares an exciting place to work; everyone is proud to enjoy the success and growth together.”

Holly adds: “Some of the talent we have brought in is absolutely exceptional, and with so many new people, the feedback we are getting is that Jazwares is a brilliant place to work because talent attracts talent. We have fantastic people all with the same goal, which is to do the best job they can.”

One big change for the UK office in 2022 is the doubling in size of its existing office space to cater for a team which has nearly doubled to 40 people in the past year alone. While Holly says the team has performed an amazing job of working remotely throughout the pandemic, the company is looking forward to welcoming back to the office as many people as possible. “Now it’s about designing the office to work with the modern way of working,” she says. “We are investing in technology to make sure we can have a hybrid model.”

Summarising Jazwares’ position for the year ahead Jonny is confident it will be a case of onwards and upwards. “Overall, we are confident of being in a position to have a really successful and enjoyable year,” he says. “There really is a lot more to come over the next 12 months and beyond.”