*Toys R Us has some new owners who are planning to reopen the toy stores in the U.S.
Toys R Us went into liquidation in 2018, closing 800 stores, and leaving 31,000 employees out of work…with no severance pay. EUR previously reported, per Fox Business News, analysts said the reason for the massive business downfall is the company “had huge debt and couldn’t keep up with trends.”
Per MSN, it was announced on Monday that the brand management company WHP Global has acquired Tru Kids, the parent company of the Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Geoffrey the Giraffe brands. The company reportedly plans to open Toys R Us stores just in time for the holiday season.
“Our investment in Toys”R”Us reflects our belief and passion for the brand. We are thrilled to be taking the reins of the world’s leading toy brand at a time when the category is up 16% and consumer demand for toys is at an all-time high. This is a natural fit for WHP, as we can leverage our global network and digital platform to help grow Toys”R”Us and Babies”R”Us around the world,” said WHP Global Chairman and CEO Yehuda Shmidman in a statement.
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“Toys R Us is a magical brand,” he said. “It’s the brand that we all associate with happy times and great times. It’s the go-to destination and the authority in toys.”
“I couldn’t dream of a more powerful brand to invest in,” Shmidman added.
“While the U.S. toy industry has shown incredible resilience in the absence of Toys R Us, there is still a massive hole for a truly national toy store chain. The key is doing it right — pandemic challenges aside, the experiment with [retailer] B8ta and the short-lived e-commerce play with Target were wrong moves, because at the end of the day, a toy store should be about getting families excited about toys. It wasn’t the right balance between experience and assortment,” deputy editor of ToyBook James Zahn told Yahoo Finance.
Continued Zahn, “Where Toys R Us could succeed is by being a middle ground between what they were and what the independent toy stores are now. A smaller store model that packs in a wide assortment of toys that can cater to kids, families, and the collector market could be a game-changer. While retailers like Target have done a great job of increasing assortment and spreading their wings into categories like gaming and collectibles, the industry lacks that big incubator — a retailer that will take chances on new lines by putting them in front of consumers for the type of visibility that you don’t get by looking at a screen. There’s also still much to be said about the ‘magic’ of a big toy store, and we’re now in the first generation of kids in roughly 70 years that doesn’t have that.”
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