The main target of the Noriel group are the children up to ten years of age, says Cristian Constantinescu, chief executive officer and shareholder. However, the best-selling products were actually computer and electronics products, that is the NorielPad tablets.
The data supplied by the company, which is one of the most important actors of the about EUR200 million toy and games market, show computer and electronics products are becoming attractive to more and more children, even to those under ten years of age.
December is the best month for the toy market, generating 25% to 30% of the annual sales. It accounts for less of the revenue of specialist companies and more of the revenue of hypermarkets and supermarkets, where sales of such products are highly seasonal.
Noriel’s best-sellers include both licensed merchandise such as Frozen products and Noriel’s private label products.
“Our own brands account for 35% of the revenue of the retail unit and the percentage will only increase,” the executive says.
Most of its private label products are sold only in its own retail chain, and only a small part is available from other retailers.
“We only make paper and cardboard based games and puzzles in our plant. The rest is made and imported from Asia.”
The company has 46 stores, five of which operating as Noriel Mega Store and 41 as the smaller Noriel, whose retail area is 250 to 300 square meters. The operator of the stores is Intertoy Zone, which posted 90.3 million lei (EUR20 million) revenue last year, when it had 276 employees. Noriel Impex, which handles distribution, posted RON28.7 million revenue, while the plant in Prahova County operated by Toys&Games logged RON4 million revenue.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)