Exclusive: MV Sports drives forwardToy World Magazine

May 18, 2023

Toy World paid a visit to MV Sports’ Birmingham HQ to catch up with Phil Ratcliffe, MD, about how changes at every level are driving MV Sports forward.

Sitting in MV Sports’ showroom, it's easy to see why the company considers itself as a one-stop-shop for outdoor toys. The vast majority of the biggest kids’ licences are present and correct including Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Batman, Spider-Man, Barbie, Bluey, Encanto and Gabby's Dollhouse. MV's overall portfolio of wheeled and outdoor products also includes non-licensed products; over 40% of its products are from well-known own-brand ranges such as Stunted, MoVe, Squish, Hedstrom and Kickmaster.

"I firmly advocate that MV Sports should be any buyer's first port of call in this sector," explains Phil. "It is our mission to provide both the best licensed and own-brand products whenever and wherever our customers want them. This could be via domestic, FOB or drop-shipping; customers seeking to drive volume via FOB should know there has never been a better time to order as freight rates and material prices are falling back down to pre-pandemic levels. We can also consolidate all our customers’ Wheeled and Outdoor needs, be they licensed and/or own brand, with low MOQs."

Behind the scenes, MV has made a number of recent hires. Following the 2020 retirement of CEO Steve Grant (now non-exec chairman), Peter Kimberley ultimately took on the role a little over a year ago. MV's sales team has also welcomed some new faces. Jordan Kay, son of longtime MV sales agent Neville Kay, joined just before January's London Toy Fair as national account manager. Jordan is working alongside Trish Cooper, who joined the company in October 2022, also as a national account manager, and Charlie Foulkes is on board as director of Marketing.

MV has also recently completed work on its new warehouse. The new facility brings MV's total warehousing space to an impressive 140,000 square feet, all of which is owned by the company, not leased, cutting costs significantly. Like the office, the warehouse runs on solar energy, while the installation of dock levellers has made the work far more comfortable for its operatives.

Phil tells us colleague wellbeing has become a much bigger focus for the company, which is taking steps to ensure everyone involved with the business is happy and committed.

To find out what all these changes mean for the business going forward, the opportunities it's looking forward to realising and why Phil believes the company remains the same under the surface, read the full article published in the June issue of Toy World.