Back in Business
Reynolds returns with new toy company
By Cliff Annicelli -- Gifts and Dec, 2/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
After more than a four-year absence, Peter Reynolds is back in the specialty toy business with big ambitions and a newly created firm with which to fulfill them, the Little Little Little Toy Company, based in Mequon, Wis.
"It's very difficult for me to view this as anything more than me wanting to be back doing what I was doing at BRIO at a higher, better level," says Reynolds, the former president of Swedish toymaker BRIO AB's now-defunct American subsidiary, Brio Corp., of his re-emergence. "That doesn't mean that things were bad at BRIO or that I'm trying to prove anything to anybody. I just really love the specialty business. I just want to make a little difference again, day by day."
This month, Reynolds gets back to making a difference with the American International Toy Fair debut of his company's inaugural line of products, more than 175 SKUs ranging from infant and toddler toys to wooden "classics," role-play products, arts and crafts materials, musical toys, sports and activity products and non-violent action figure playsets.
"Things are going very well," Reynolds says of the company's progress. "It's like the old days when I first started out with BRIO. You have only a few hands and lots and lots of things to do, but it's a lot of fun."
That wasn't always the case, though. The intervening years between now and September of 2002, when Reynolds resigned from BRIO, saw the long-time toy business executive questioning his desire to return. His departure from BRIO led to him leave the business for more than two years, in part because "I just didn't want to be involved," Reynolds tells Playthings. But by the beginning of 2005, his situation had shifted. The search for opportunities led him to a deal to import products from German toymaker HaPe but "significant differences" as to distribution plans and revenue expectations eventually derailed the partnership, Reynolds admits. "Ultimately, I wanted to do what I'm doing now."
A promising plan
Reynolds' vision for the Little Little Little Toy Co. is to offer specialty toy retailers a full-line brand option that can span their stores' departments, much like specialty market generalists such as Small World Toys or International Playthings. Reynolds stresses that the company will offer its line to retailers with a guarantee that the merchandise will only be found at specialty toy stores and other independent retailers who, he says, "focus on toys because they believe in the value of play—some gift stores, some book stores, some baby stores, potentially some hobby stores." It's a promise Reynolds expects will resonate with small retailers who've seen their merchandise mix poached in recent years by mass market rivals.
"We're not going to step over the line into mass. We will err on the side of remaining too pure rather than tainting ourselves," Reynolds says. "Over the next three to five years, we'll be investing in [our retailer customers], and we're going to be asking [them] to make an investment in us to build a brand tied to the specialty retailer. In a sense, we'll marry each other."
What those retailers will get in 2007 is a line composed almost entirely of private lable playthings created by British specialty retailer Early Learning Centre, a company Reynolds has admired since the 1980s. "They design and manufacture some phenomenal products, many of which have been tested at retail for several years, so we know they'll work in the specialty toy arena here," he says.
The assortment—marketed in Early Learning Centre's packaging for the first year—should be enough to cover 40 percent of "the better departments" in a typical specialty toy store, Reynolds predicts. His longer-term goal is a line of Little Little Little Toy Co. playthings that can rest comfortably in 80 percent of the product categories specialty retailers stock. It's a product assortment and distribution plan that comes from lessons learned during his BRIO days, he says.
"We were always a wooden railway company first. Despite efforts, we could not expand out of that—and that's a dangerous place to be," Reynolds says. "With the new company, we'll have a width of range."
Acting and reacting
The new company will also strive to react quickly to supply and pricing challenges—something that Reynolds says helped doom BRIO in America—and will work to reinforce a marketing message that reminds parents how critical "quality" play is for their kids.
It's a lot for Reynolds to pull off with only a start-up staff of less than 10 people, many of whom are former BRIO Corp. staffers or sales reps. But part of the Little Little Little Toy Co.'s vision is reflected in its name. All those "littles" mean something—they're about commitment to a small segment of the toy business and the little guys on its front lines, Reynolds says. Success within the confines of the specialty toy market is the marker by which the company will measure winning.
"In a sense, it isn't about how much you sell—we could sell twice as much product to a handful of retailers, but I wouldn't feel half as successful as I would if we sold half as much product to 500 retailers," he says. "What we want to do is build a presence in specialty stores and a relationship with the retailers for the long-term movement of good toys."
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