The Entertainer has strengthened its executive team as it looks to grow its wholesale and international business.
The toy specialist has appointed Brian Proctor as chief product officer, which will bring together the buying, merchandising and marketing functions to speed up the go-to-market process on products, Toy World reported.
Proctor joins from TK Maxx owner TJX Europe, where he has spent almost two decades as its divisional merchandise manager. Prior to that, he held roles in Tesco, Debenhams and Richer Sounds.
The Entertainer has also appointed chief commercial officer Geoff Sheffield to commercial director of international, where he will lead on all commercial aspects of the international retail strategy and its execution.
He will be responsible for driving the scale of The Entertainer’s international franchise and concession business, which has seen the toy shop open concessions in more than 600 Tesco stores.
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The Entertainer group chief executive Andrew Murphy said: “This is an exciting new era for our business and our loved and trusted brands.
“While we will always proudly be ‘the local toy shop’ at heart, the Teal Group is now a multi-faceted, international toy business, offering a wide range of business-to-business services as well as direct-to-consumer propositions; as a designer, sourcer, developer, wholesaler, concessionaire and retailer of toys across multiple international markets.
“Recognising this evolution and the scale of the new opportunities ahead of us, I’m delighted to have our new leadership structure and key people in place to propel our growth and cement our position as one of the world’s leading toy specialists.”
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