baby&junior: What are your expectations as a first-time exhibitor at the Spielwarenmesse?

Andrea Kathrin Christenson: The three of us have been in the toy business for many years, but it’s still exciting because we’re unveiling the kikadu brand for the first time. I see great potential for the brand, especially after presenting our themes and product worlds and explaining our philosophy to many of our former customers in the run-up to the fair. The response has been really positive so far. However, to answer your question in concrete terms: I sincerely hope that we’ll generate a lot of interest at the fair so that we can launch with between 50 and 80 customers in around mid-March. If we’re really optimistic, I think we could hit the 100 mark. I believe this goal is within our grasp because we have a very coherent philosophy. It’s important to us that everyone along the supply chain gets a fair price. We’re offering the retail trade a margin that is far higher than what you would normally expect from the toy sector. Moreover, we’re supplying exclusively to the specialist retail trade, which can be on-/offline or multichannel.

baby&junior: Why should the retail trade offer your products?

Andrea Kathrin Christenson: On the one hand, because the collection successfully marries up design and function. It’s a selected and carefully considered collection that parents will enjoy having in their homes. I also think that the retail trade always like to have something new to try, something that brings a breath of fresh air into their shops. We want our retailers to enjoy selling our products. Adding kikadu to their ranges also makes business sense because they can earn more money with our products than with others based on the same inventory turnover. And I also think that some retailers will perhaps order from us out of loyalty and that many are really curious to know what we’re doing now.

baby&junior: What are your personal favourites?

Andrea Kathrin Christenson: I’d just like to add something about the structure of the collection. We start pre-birth, helping parents fit out their nurseries and we accompany children up to the age of around 15 to 18 months, and this will remain our focus. We’ve also developed products for mothers and children. It was really important to us to integrate the aspects of design and function, but we weren’t necessarily striving for a cool design as we always wanted to add a touch of charm. My favourite animals in the collection are the Flamingo and the Fox, I think they look really good. The fox isn’t necessarily new as a toy animal, but I think it really comes into its own here.

baby&junior: The fabrics in the collection are GOTS-certified, but the collection isn’t?

Andrea Kathrin Christenson: This is because we like to add accents in neon fabrics, which aren’t GOTS-certified but are made in OEKO-TEX fabrics suitable for babies. We didn’t want to forego some of the design features. We also use stuffing from PET bottles because the products dry faster after washing.

baby&junior: Dear Mrs. Christenson, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us!