The Entertainer boss Andrew Murphy is feeling “pretty good” in the run up to Christmas this year, despite the recent storms playing havoc on shoppers coming into stores to snap up toys.
“We had a good Black Friday, but with two weeks left to run it’s all to play for and we could do without these storms turning up every Saturday, because that’s definitely not helping.”
He says the business is “coming from a position of strength” during the all important Golden Quarter thanks to its expanded footprint from partnerships with Tesco, Moonpig, M&S and Matalan, but admits that across its 160+ standalone stores “everything is hard won at the moment”.
Murphy concedes that the retailer is likely to introduce discount in the final days of pre-Christmas trading to bolster sales – but says that because the bulk of ranges are not seasonally dependent so “that pressure to sell just isn’t quite the same in our business as it would be in many others”.
This year will mark Murphy’s second Christmas at The Entertainer after joining the toy specialist from John Lewis last September.
He’s certainly had a busy year, rolling out toy shop concessions into Tesco stores nationwide, growing the business’ international footprint in central Europe and the Middle East, and launching the brand’s first Christmas campaign. Retail Gazette sat down with Murphy to find out more about what’s been keeping The Entertainer busy this year and what it has in store for 2025.
Growing the footprint
The Entertainer has more than quadrupled its UK footprint this year as it rolled out concessions across 861 Tesco stores nationwide and in the Republic of Ireland.
The move, Murphy explains, has added about 50% to 60% on top of its UK and Ireland business.
“It’s taken a huge amount out of us this year as a business to, if you like, to swallow that elephant,” he says, sharing the team were opening 30 concessions each week for about 25 weeks.
However, he believes The Entertainer has “not even scratched the surface of the potential [the partnership] has” and that it could “ultimately double our business” one day.
“The deal with Tesco was signed in mid-December last year, which meant that we didn’t have the opportunity to do planned, ranging and buying for the full national Tesco business until about September, October, because the lead time for those toys is so long,” says Murphy.
This meant the retailer traded the first three quarters of the year “just putting together the best ranges we could from the product that was available”, he explains.
Murphy says the business has learnt a lot of about trading in a grocery retail, explaining that “price and newness speaks really loudly” to customers in a supermarket.
As such, the business has had to shift its merchandising and supply chain approach to recognize the “slightly different rhythm” in a grocery setting, says Murphy.
He explains The Entertainer’s commercial teams have “genuinely a list of 20 things” to act on in the new year, including better range planning.
“We realised that we’ve probably gone in at too low an average selling price on average, which is not to say that some of the lower priced toys shouldn’t be there – but it’s more the balance of the whole range,” Murphy notes.
The Entertainer’s partnership with Tesco falls under its ‘Toy Box’ b2b service, which allows partner retailers to their tailor toy offerings using its bespoke sourcing, ranging, wholesale or retail execution.
Murphy explains he’s hoping to grow the service in the new year after finding success with its current tie-ups, which also includes concessions inside 34 M&S stores and 150 Matalan locations.
“Matalan is long established and is probably now the kind of size and shape that it’s going to be. With M&S, we are in the process of deciding together on what our long term shape is going to be. I expect that we’ll be in a position to talk more about that early next year”.
It welcomed Moonpig to the fold in September to launch a curated selection of 200 toys from across The Entertainer and Early Learning Centre businesses and is already performing “ahead of what we’d expected”, Murphy notes.
He explains the business is in active discussions with several other UK retailers, but is tight-lipped on who it’s looking to partner with next and whether his old employer John Lewis is a possibility.
Meet Ray
The Entertainer kicked off the crucial Christmas trading period with the launch of its first big marketing campaign last month, introducing the world to Ray, a colourful stuffed bear.
Murphy explains that this is the first Christmas campaign The Entertainer has run which has gone beyond “presenting a toy as a solution at a certain price in a certain place”.
Murphy knows a thing or two about the power of a impactful festive campaign from his former employer John Lewis. Indeed, the toy specialist worked with John Lewis’ former creative agency Adam&EveDDB for a tear-jerking spotlight on the fickle nature of children’s relationships with their toys for its Christmas advert.
“It’s just a huge opportunity for us to become better known and better understood. [The campaign] was very deliberately meant to be using creative that would be stand out, that wouldn’t just be run of the mill.”
Murphy says the Christmas campaign is reflective of the new approach The Entertainer’s has taken to marketing this year.
“We’re developing a tone of voice that is more playful. We’re more visible,” he explains.
The retailer playfully mocked John Lewis’s attempts to price match the retailer in September when it announced the return of Never Knowingly Undersold.
“We hope to get some return in terms of increased footfall and customer awareness, but it really is about elevating the brand over two to three years,” says Murphy.
He says that Ray will be a permanent fixture on The Entertainer’s shelves and is “selling really well – but he won’t become the retailer’s mascot in the way Kevin the Carrot has for Aldi.
Murphy shares that it’s just the beginning of The Entertainer’s new marketing approach.
“We’ve got so much more we can do through influencers and social media, and that will be our first half of the year focus,” he says, adding “we have some strong plans for doing things that we haven’t done before next year”.
While he is pretty tight lipped about what The Entertainer has up its sleeve, Murphy shares that some of the plans will be focused on the Early Learning Centre, which it bought from Mothercare in 2019 just before the nursery specialist’s collapse.
“It’s only now that we honestly feel that we’ve got our feet planted steady enough that we could really do justice to Early Learning Centre from a product development, marketing and distribution perspective. We’ve got some big hopes for Early Learning Centre next year,” he says.
To infinity and beyond
While Murphy has big plans for the retailer in 2025, he admits that Labour’s Budget has “changed what we feel about our opportunities for growth and the viability of our own estate”.
He was hoping to grow the retailer’s own footprint after opening its first new stores in two years in Exeter and Milton Keynes this Autumn, but shares that its expansion plans are now being reviewed.
“We had at least six lined up for next year, arguably we could have got as far as 10. I don’t think there are 10 viable locations now because of the cost difference,” he explains.
“It’s not a straightforward answer, but I think the budget has reduced by at least half the number of viable locations that we would consider looking at.”
That said, he notes “most of our business development focus now needs to move internationally, simply because we are now so big in the UK, there’s just incrementally less for us to go after”.
“If I was to predict what 2025 will bring, I think we will announce some big new partnerships with retailers in the Middle East, and we’ll also do the same in Europe,” Murphy says, explaining “those are the two primary areas of focus at the moment”.
“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of something in the Far East and something in America, but those are further out for us right now.”
The Entertainer is just one retailer that has its sights set on expanding in the Middle East, which Murphy notes has “a lot of similarities with consumer behavior” in the UK.
That’s not to say the retailer will ignore its home grown business, as Murphy explains own brand growth is another priority for the year.
“Between Addo product and Early Learning Centre, product will have grown this year from 18% of our participation to 25% of our sales.
“Next year, it’s a really stretching target but we’re going to try and get to 30%. The strength of the ranges and the value they offer, we think that’s possible.”
After a busy year laying the foundations, it seems as though The Entertainer is just getting started on its growth ambitions as it aims for infinity and beyond.
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