Australian Children’s Appetite for Toys  

The toy market in Australia grew by 9% in 2007 to 103.6 million units however with the Average Retail Price (ARP) for toys dropping value grew at a slower rate of 6.7% to reach 1.8 billion Australian Dollars.

Unlike most toy markets in the world Australia enjoys two peak selling periods the obvious one being Christmas which accounts for 24% of the years sales but then July enjoys a second peak driven by retailer catalogues accounting for a further 18% of annual sales.  

Within toys all categories grew in 2007 with the exception of Child Electronics and Plush. The two largest categories namely Infant & Preschool and Outdoor & Sports Toys showed good value growth of 11% and 7% respectively.  

Games & Puzzles showed good growth at 10% in value with the old favourite Monopoly instrumental in the categories growth while Twister and Deal or No Deal also recorded good growth.  

Arts & Crafts had a good performance growing by 16% in value driven by new product releases appealing to girls.  

Boys Toys saw good growth with Action Figures having a bumper year recording the largest value growth of 31.3% driven by Spiderman, Transformers and WWE. Building Sets also performed well growing 12% in value while Vehicles saw good unit growth of 14%.  

The top selling toy in 2007 in value terms was once again Tamagotchi with their 4^th version while the top selling toy in unit terms was the Hot Wheels Die Cast Vehicle.

For further information, please contact:

Michael Elam-Rye                               GfK Australia                         02 9900 2851