IBB London has taken on the distribution of ToyWatch in the UK and Ireland and will makes its first appearance with the brand at the London Watch Show next week.
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The Italian fashion brand, which launched in 2006, took off with rapid success in its early years but Julian Pollock of IBB London, which also distributes Glam Rock and Lulu Guinness, explained that it lost momentum in various markets, including the UK, over the past few years.
Pollock said: "I think it’s one thing building a brand and I think it’s another thing managing the success of a brand."
Recently the brand found a new distributor in America and, following initial success there, approached IBB London when it was on the hunt for the right UK distributor.
"The UK should be a massive market for ToyWatch and they needed a distributor who could manage growth here and build relations with fantastic retailers," said Pollock. "We know the brand is still in demand."
"What we have to do is a tremendous marketing job and build the brand back up again. There’s a whole audience out there that don’t even know ToyWatch while there are also people who know it and remember it. It has a great name and no one dislikes ToyWatch, it just dropped off people’s radar."
Pollock explained that a realignment of the pricing of the products to make them more commercial and some new product launches will help in the growth of the brand in the UK.
IBB London plans to invest a large marketing budget into ToyWatch over a three year period. "In three years if we can get it back to three quarters of what it was we’ll be very happy because it was phenomenal," said Pollock.
The distributor is going to be showing ToyWatch at the London Watch Show at Freemason’s Hall next week.
IBB London is also exhibiting with Lulu Guinness, which it launched in December last year and has the UK and Ireland distribution for.
Talking about the success of the brand to date, Pollock said: "It’s doing really well for us, we’re really pleased with it. The watches are really striking a chord with a certain type of person – they are quirky but still commercial. In the right environment it is selling incredibly well."
The brand now features in approximately 30 doors in the UK and Ireland and also on Asos and is looking to expand onto other e-tail sites.
