Home office spurs stationery: chains stock up on higher-end merchandise, expand offerings - Discount Industry Annual Report: part 2: Merchandising and Productivity Analysis

Discount Store News, July 16, 1990

Licensing, which generally runs in cycles, has been enjoying a renaissance the last few years. Licensed properties have been growing at between 5 percent and 7 percent annually. But last year, licensed products grew by 8 percent over 1988 to $6.8 billion at retail, according to the 14th Annual Licensing Industry Survey released by The Licensing Letter, Scottsdale, Ariz. Licensed stationery goods, which is part of the survey's publishing/stationery category, accounted for 10.5 percent of all licensed product sales in the $64.6 billion business. Some of the hot licensing characters in stationery include Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, Sesame Street, Peanuts, Garfield, Ziggy and Holly Hobbie. Dick Tracy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Corporate licenses such as Coca-Cola also are important in this category.

What's different about licensed properties this year than in the past is retailers' greater reliance on classic characters. While "hot" properties still command a lot of media attention and generate quick sales, many are seen as flashes-in-the-pan and not reliable sellers day-after-day. Since sources agree that licensed properties account for about 10 percent of a company's total department, composing a program that will return steady sales is important.

Among the many new programs released this year are Holly Hobbie by American Greetings, a mainstay for the greeting card company, Paddington Bear, Tom and Jerry cartoon characters and Little Golden Book Land characters by Sangamon, and Alvin and the Chipmunks by Ambassador. Also at Ambassador, Star Trek and Disney's Winnie the Pooh are scheduled to be launched in 1991, according to Susan Meek, manager of licensing acquisitions for Hallmark Properties, which is the licensing arm of Hallmark and Ambassador.

Mead and Stuart Hall, stationery manufacturers with strong back-to-school businesses, report they too are concentrating on the classic characters.

At the 1990 B-T-S show Mead introduced Looney Tunes characters including Bugs Bunny and Tweetie Bird. Mead also is concentrating a lot of energy on its own internally generated programs, including Super Shades. At Stuart Hall, Lisa Frank, the artist and designer, is being spotlighted as are Sesame Street and Holly Hobbie.

PHOTO : Wal-Mart, Harrison, Ark.: Bulk displays of notebook paper represent one way for full-line

PHOTO : discounters to tap into the surging stationery business.