Czechs spend 5.4 billion crowns on toys

Last year Czech consumers spent a whopping 5.4 billion crowns on toys – a four percent rise year-on-year. According to the Czech News Agency, domestic manufacturers saw a nine percent rise in production, while multi-national national firms produced toys worth 5.6 billion.

Photo: Alan Chia, CC BY-SA 2.0

The toy market is enjoying robust times, it appears, with consumers spending a full 4 percent more on their children in 2014 than the previous year. Spending amounted to 5.4 billion crowns. Production for domestic firms rose by nine percent to 2.4 billion. Major firms such as Lego, Simba, Ravensburger or Playmobil produced items in the Czech Republic at a value of 5.6 billion crowns, the Czech Association for Toy and Play reported. Christmas is still two-and-a-half months or so away: but there is no question big chain retailers will be stocking up for the holiday season. In the spring, the market will see the entry of what could be a new major player: Britain’s Hamleys. Sellers already on the Czech market include Sparkys, Bambule, Pompo, HM Studio, and others.

As for big sellers this year?

It is hard to say what will be the greatest hit but if the past is any indication, the smart money will bet on anything Star Wars-related, as Episode 7, directed by J.J. Abrams, hits the screens in December. Already shops are stocking news versions of Lego’s Millennium Falcon with an older Han Solo, Chewbacca, and a cast of new characters who will soon be household names. By contrast, last year’s reported big hit, at least initially as far as the Lego brick building system was concerned, was Minecraft, but most stores only stocked Minecraft-themed sets well after the holidays.

Brick-and-mortar shops also come under more and more competition form online sellers, so they too will certainly offer better deals online than point-of-purchase sales. According to statistics released, there are more than 1,508 e-shops selling children’s toys – an increase of one-third year-on-year. It is not lost on any retailer that more and more consumers also compare prices online through the use of online sites which offer an overview of prices on items from the cheapest to most expensive.