In the great upheaval of toy specialists, Kingtoy is doing well. The family group located in Voiron (Isère) begins the integration of the Maxi Toys chain which it bought out of the first confinement at the bar of the Commercial Court of Mons. The company had its headquarters in Belgium and was owned by the Black Swan fund, which eventually placed it in turnaround judicial. Maxi Toys has 130 stores, including 90 in France, 27 in Belgium and Luxembourg, and 6 in Switzerland. The French Competition Authority has imposed three transfers to King Toy – which, for its part, operates 250 points of sale.
“We will invest 30 million over three years to bring the French Maxi Toys under the King Toy brand. The store modules are similar, approximately 800 square meters of surface area and outlying locations. The Belgian Maxi Toys will keep their brand, which has a strong reputation in the country,” explains Philippe Gueydon, Managing Director of King Toy.
Rising costs
Kingtoy is growing faster than the French toy market, which has been driven by the Covid (an increase of regarding 10% since the beginning of the year, according to the NPD panelist). The group, which is 49% controlled by the founding Gueydon family and 51% by the Italian Prénatal Retail Group, recorded in 2021 a turnover of 373 million euros for an Ebitda of 46 million. Philippe Gueydon expects 420 million in 2022, but with an Ebitda of only 30 million.
“Our transport costs have increased by 15%, those of energy by 60 % and the tariffs of toy manufacturers by around 10%. We are going to have to take on our margins, ”explains the manager, who is not afraid of shortages, on the other hand, because the region of China where the toy factories are located has been little affected by the Covid rebound.
Kingtoy is developing serenely while, at the same time, competitor PicWic Toys (45 supermarkets), resulting from the merger in 2019 of PicWic and French Toys’R’Us, is looking for a buyer before the Commercial Court of Lille. La Grande Récré was taken over by the multi-buyer Financière Immobilière de Bordeaux which has loaded its boat in recent years with the Galeries Lafayette of French metropolises, Go Sport, Camaïeu and other brands. King Toys total 12.5% of the French toy market, not far behind the leader Amazon (15%).
Safety notices
The company from Isère, which doubles the surface area of its logistics site in Rives and makes 15% of its sales on the Web, is also innovating with the opening in May of a first King Okaz, a new concept for the sale of second-hand toys. . Six other openings are planned. “ Notre idea is to take back the used toys of all our customers, following expertise, for regarding a quarter of their initial price and to resell them at half of the first sale price at King Okaz”, specifies the general manager of King Toy. Second-hand sellers are paid in vouchers, which boosts overall sales.
The toys ofoccasion are repackaged in kraft paper bags on which the legal safety notices are reprinted. The originality of the King Okaz formula is due to the fact that in these stores of around 600 square meters, two-thirds of the assortment will be made up of new toys, second-hand only occupying one-third of the shelves.
“When buying a Christmas present, customers often prefer new. The presence of new toys also makes you want to enter the store, which would be less the case if it only offered second-hand goods,” analyzes the manager. Second-hand items are displayed in each department below or next to new items. This is how the King Toy group will further increase its number of points of sale.