If you still think private label is just about cheap knock-offs and budget filler, you haven’t been paying attention.
Walk into any Kmart in Australia and take a proper look. Roughly 85% of the toys on their shelves are under their own Anko label. Not hidden in the back—front and centre. Target’s not far behind, now pushing around 50% private label and increasingly sourcing from the same pool as Kmart. Different logo, same supply chain. No surprise really—they both belong to Wesfarmers.
Even Hamleys, which used to be a proper destination for discovery, has fallen in line. I remember looking forward to going there, hoping to find something new and different—some clever startup brand, or a toy I hadn’t seen before. The last time I went? It was just shelf after shelf of their own-label stuff. Polished, yes. But uninspiring.
And then there’s Addo Play—originally launched by The Entertainer in the UK. It was clever in a “protect your margins” kind of way. But now they’re selling Addo into other retailers. Same with FAO Schwarz—you can find their private label in stores they don’t even own. I’ll admit, this bit puzzles me.
Why would any retailer stock another retailer’s brand? It’s like letting someone else park their food truck in your restaurant. I must be missing something, because unless there’s some brand illusion that consumers buy into—or the margin is just that good—I don’t quite get it.
But that’s where we are.
Retailers want control. Control of pricing, supply chain, margins, and speed. And own-brand gives them that. They’re not at the mercy of licences, or brand owners with inflated RRPs and long lead times. They can copy what’s trending, tweak it, and land it on shelf before a branded rep has even booked their showroom at Toy Fair.
Meanwhile, brands are getting squeezed—on price, shelf space, and even relevance. Retailers aren’t just gatekeepers anymore. They’re direct competitors.
And let’s be honest: own-brand rarely leads innovation. It leads safe, price-pointed versions of what’s already working. And as own-brand takes up more real estate, the aisle becomes more predictable, less exciting.
Yes, it’s good business for the retailer. But it’s a slow erosion of what made the toy industry dynamic in the first place—brand stories, product originality, the joy of discovering something new.
And unless brands start thinking differently about how they sell and where they sell, they’re going to find themselves replaced by something that looks a lot like them, only cheaper and faster to produce.
Thierry, a seasoned international sales and marketing expert, founded Konomocha in 2015. With over 20 years of experience, he helps toy and stationery brands expand into EMEA and APAC markets.
This article originally appeared in Edition 17 of The Toy Universe Magazine
