Shoppers snap up bikes and scooters rides post Covid lockdowns: Toys R Us

The online toy retailer is witnessing a resurgence in bikes, scooters and outdoor play equipment following the end of lockdowns.

Families are enjoying the otdoors again as Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions eased, and are buying up bikes, scooters and play equipment instead of puzzles and boardgames. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Mums and dads switched from boardgames, puzzles and blocks at the end of 2021 to favour toys and equipment they could enjoy with their families in the outdoors, like bikes and trampolines, as Covid-19 restrictions ended and they ventured outside again to have fun.

This involved a psychological change to family thinking fuelled by waning fears around Covid-19, better weather heading into summer and a desire to get away from the kitchen table to enjoy outdoor play.

Online toys and hobbies retailer Toys R Us witnessed a steady rise in its revenue for the six months to January 31, bolstered by the traditional Christmas rush as well as a yearning by parents to once more engage in family fun outside as the threat of Covid-19 along with lockdowns eased.

The chief executive of the ASX-listed Toys R Us, Louis Mittoni, said on Thursday that the online toys and hobby marketplace encountered a broadening of its most popular purchased items over the first half of fiscal 2022. This reflected the changes to Covid-19 rules, an ending of lockdowns and families opting for the outdoors rather than sitting around the dining table doing a jigsaw or playing a boardgame.

“For Toys R Us we found it becoming very broad, a few of the areas that we found doing extremely well were outdoors, so families really wanting to spend more time together outdoors,” Mr Mittoni said.

“Predominantly that was bikes. So you know, families going out for rides together. We also started several categories such as play centres, trampolines and things like that, that we hadn’t been as heavily involved in, but bikes and outdoor play, as opposed to indoor building sets really did show quite significant improvements through that period of time.”

Still, Toys R Us swung to a net loss of $4.32m for the six months to January 31 after reporting a profit of $1.017m in 2021.

Mr Mittoni said indoor games were still popular, such as key brands Lego, puzzles and collectables like Pokemon cards, but families were switching their purchasing behaviour as Covid-19 fears lessened.

“I think families have really gone through a psychological change,” Mr Mittoni said.

“We have been indoors for quite some time, we were lucky ahead of the peak season that Australians could get out in warmer weather which meant that families wanted to spend that time together.

“And we actually planned for that in late 2020, we did see a lot of shortages on things such as bikes and other outdoor products such as scooters and so forth. The combination of the end of those restrictions and the warmer weather enhanced those categories.”

Revenue surged more than threefold to $23.5m from $7.1m, while the customer’s average order in their online shopping baskets rose 22 per cent to $115.70. Gross profit more than doubled to $5.2m.

The volatile accounts and divergence in net profit and underlying profit are a legacy of the restructure and backdoor listing of Toys R Us into the old ASX company Funtastic in late 2020. This saw Funtastic acquire in a reverse takeover the Australian e-commerce websites for Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Hobby Warehouse and tech distributor Mittoni.

Other strong categories in the first half included Lego, toys linked to the popular kids cartoon show Bluey and soft toys Squishmallows.

Mr Mittoni has grand plans to ratchet up the Toys R Us brand name following the global collapse of the once popular retailer in 2018 which includes an expansion into Britain.

“We are excited to implement our plans to accelerate and scale our Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Hobby Warehouse operations in Australia, and relaunch Toys R Us and Babies R Us in the UK in mid-2022.

“With a world-class executive team now assembled in the UK, we have developed the operational capability to meet shoppers‘ expectations and demand from market launch right through to the peak trading season.”