Following a successful digital toy fair earlier this year, Artiwood was looking forward to exhibiting at its first gift fair since early last year.
And it seems they weren’t the only ones excited about being at Reed Gift Fair as foot traffic was pretty steady throughout each day of the fair.
“We have been exhibiting for more than 20 years, but this is the first time with Reed,” says managing director, Andrew McGregor.
“It has been a very positive experience. Many new leads, good quality leads, it was very encouraging to see so much support for the industry―we saw more customers come through from interstate than we expected. Attending the show was a roll of the dice as it was the first trade show in 14 months for us, but it worked out well.”
Covid seems to have been the catalyst for many people to start their own business, with a mix of existing and new customers visiting the eco-friendly toy supplier’s stand including baby stores, gift stores as well licensees, news agents and florists.
“About half of the new customers had only been in business for less than 12 months,” McGregor adds.
Brands such as Kinderfeets, BigJigs and Headu did very well at the fair. Headu is made and printed in Italy and includes educational puzzles that have a multifunctional aspect to it―as you build the puzzle additional educational activities extend the life of the product.
“We picked Headu up last year at the toy fair in Nurnberg. We showed samples at the Australian toy fair in March last year, which were really well received―we are now on our fourth container. Taking on a new brand in the middle of a Covid lockdown is risky, but it couldn’t have gone better.”
