14. December 2010
In the same boat: Antonio Pueyo, Managing Director Simba Toys Iberia, and
Vicente Portilla, Managing Director Smoby Toys Iberia, in Madrid’s popular Parque del Retiro during a business conference.
Spain’s capital, Madrid, greets visitors with blazing sunshine, a picture-postcard blue sky, unrelenting heat, a sea of flowers, the sweet scent of summer – and awful traffic. Madrid, Europe’s third largest capital city, is notorious for its traffic jams, and you can’t fail to notice the large number of German cars. Spaniards have a high regard for German car makes, and Germans adore Spain as a holiday destination.
They always did, ever since tourism was invented. More surprising is the fact that Spanish children are so keen on Simba Dickie Group toys. So keen, indeed, that
the range of Simba Toys and Smoby Toys Iberia is Spain’s number six best-seller
on annual average, while the summer range is actually number one. However you look at it, the Spanish market is unique in the world. You can only survive there if you can offer an equally unique concept. And that is what the Fürth family firm does.
The secret lies is in the synergies
"The secret of our success is that each of the two firms, Simba Toys and Smoby
Toys, has a different concept, but they have a single management team that col-
laborates very closely," says Uwe Weiler, COO of the Simba Dickie Group.
"Administration and sales are jointly organized and we have also achieved
synergies in the licensing business." The Iberian market is strongly license driven:
More than 30 percent of the toys relate to a license theme. Mostly this means characters from favorite movies, TV series, and TV shows such as current top child hero SpongeBob, or the teenie-stars from "Power Puff Girls" and "Patito Feo".
Licensing: advantages and risks
"Anything here just sells better if it’s licensed," says managing director Antonio
Pueyo, who is responsible for all three Spanish locations, Madrid, Valencia and
Ibi. "That makes it a tough business to start with." But they manage it impressively
well. Even Squap, the Simba Dickie Group’s successful catch-andthrow game, is decorated with pictures of favorite comic-book heroes.
This summer the Spanish subsidiaries obtained yet another master toy license, for "Code Lyoko". This computer-animated TV series, by production firm Moon-Scoop, ran from 2003 to 2007 on the French TV channels France 3 and Canal J, and also on the US Cartoon Network. Then Spanish kids – niños – also fell under its spell. The license agreement covers action figures, tricycles, soft toys, dressing up gear, board games, electronic toys, and musical toys.
"We are convinced we can succeed," says Pueyo, "although the license business is very risky." Because nobody can predict what kids are going to lose their hearts to. Pueyo (44) has no doubts about Sponge-Bob: "There’s an episode on TV every
three hours, so there’s no way any young viewer can possibly miss SquarePants."
Twenty years under the Spanish sun
As long ago as 1990, eight years after Fritz and Michael Sieber founded Simba Toys, father and son opened a subsidiary in Barcelona. But the Simba Dickie
Group’s Spanish success story didn’t really begin until 1998, when they moved
from Barcelona to Madrid, where many international toy manufacturers and buyers
now have branch offices. A local Spanish partner was brought in, and later on the
firm acquired two directors, Antonio Pueyo und Ignacio Rodríguez-Novás, who had
an unsurpass-able knowledge of the market and the industry.
On the way to the toy
It’s what fun is all about: Vicente Portilla (l.) and Antonio Pueyo take SpongeBob for a walk around Valencia.
Antonio Pueyo from the north of Spain entered the toy industry and now enjoys it with passion, enthusiasm and esprit. Pueyo was born the son of a small entrepreneur, but it wasn’t business dealings that fascinated him first of all, but the humanities. He completed his legal studies as a lover of history, literature and law. "Reading is my passion", he says, and can’t walk past any bookshop without stopping. He went on to obtain his Master of Business Administration, specializing in Marketing. In 1992 he became Support Manager Camping & Outdoor in a big business group; in 1996 he went to Madrid as marketing manager for Toys"R"Us.
He became a member of the Simba Dickie family in 1998. Looking back, father-oftwo Pueyo remembers that "building up a customer base was a real challenge." Today, Spain is the Fürth firm’s third-largest market after Germany and France.
Also on board at Simba Toys is managing director Ignacio Rodríguez-Novás , who
couldn’t be present for this photo shoot. The 48 year old has been with the Simba
Dickie Group for more than a decade. He studied economics and business administration in Madrid, the city of his birth, and wrote his doctoral thesis in Florence, Italy. He then entered the telecommunications industry as a junior product manager, subsequently rising to senior manager. His first contact with the toy business was as a central buyer for the Spanish Promodes Group, where he later became director of the Non-Food Departments. In 2000 he moved to Simba Iberia, built up the logistics system, and in 2000 additionally took over the operational business for the Portuguese market. For the last two and a half years, alongside Antonio Pueyo, he has led the 25-person team in the Madrid office and warehouse. His specialty remains logistics.
Proud of the Smoby story
The takeover of the French toy manufacturer Smoby in April 2008 paved the way for today’s Spanish group. It was not until 2004 that the French firm based in the Haute Jura set foot in Spain, where it quite soon achieved success with its innovative products.
Vicente Portilla had been a commercial director of Smoby Spain since 1996, based in Valencia, a beautiful maritime city about three hours along the freeway from Madrid. Portilla was born in Valencia, studied business administration in his native city, and after a brief period as a free-lancer started his career in 1992 as sales manager for Josman, a Spanish children’s clothes and school bags manufacturer. In 1993 he took a brief excursion as product manager in the food industry, followed by another two years as sales manager for Juguetes Mediterráneo, a Spanish Smoby partner. In 1996 he joined Smoby itself as a commercial director. With the change of ownership in April 2008 it soon became clear that he would be continuing as director: CEO Michael Sieber appointed Portilla country manager of the newly created Smoby Toys España. The 47 year old father-of-two is dedicated
body and soul to the toy industry. 22 office and warehouse employees ensure
that Smoby products find their ways into Spanish kiddies’ bedrooms and gardens.
"We are number one in toy kitchens," proclaims Vicente Portilla. Girls and boys are both equally keen on this role play.
The Spanish toy industry makes 75 (!) percent of its annual turnover at Christmas. But outdoor toys sell well too: Spain’s 2.4 million sun-kissed kids can play outdoors for nine months of the year.
A strong team
Store check at Toys'R'Us.
The heads of Simba and Smoby Iberia
meet at least twice a month. They collab-
orate closely, intensively, and across the
entire market. "Thanks to the European
Smoby factory we can now make everything ourselves and implement our own ideas more quickly," says Vicente Portilla. "Flexibility is our trump card," adds Antonio Pueyo. "We don’t just manufacture in China, but also in Germany, Italy, Spain, or France." The land of olive oil, luscious water melons, seafood, and citrus fruit is also fertile in specialty stores. About 1,000 of them are organized into three big associations. "We support our specialty partners with a selected portfolio and special offers," says Pueyo, explaining the strategy of the Iberian subsidiaries. Alongside the big customers small convenience stores, service station stores, and the kiosks you find on every street corner represent a "not inconsiderable business," says Pueyo. It is in such places that adults buy their newspapers, magazines, cigarettes – and take along a present for the kids as well. For example, collectibles such as the Fillies. "Or the fartypants SpongeBob," adds Pueyo with a laugh at this outlandish invention.
The third subsidiary is Picó, a plant belonging to the old Smoby firm. This 12,000-square-meter production facility is in Ibi, a town in the province of Alicante. It makes buggies and tricycles, go-karts and doll’s prams. By relocating part of the metal working away from France, Ibi was turned into the center of the Simba Dickie Group’s metal processing. But that is another story, which we’ll tell you about in our next issue.
Always in a good mood: the Smoby Iberia team in front of their office building in Valencia.
