Build-A-Bear has announced it will be opening more stores in the UK. They will follow the new “discovery store” concept, the company introduced previously.
New Build-A-Bear Workshops will be opened at six places or more. The company is also planning on opening new outlet stores. Imagine that – an outlet store for teddy bears!
The stores will be following the new “discovery store” concept Build-A-Bear has introduced recently. “We’re focusing on our new discovery store concept, which opened in Trafford Centre and Arndale in Manchester at the end of March and middle of April”, Roger Parry, senior MD for Build-A-Bear Workshop, told ToyNews.
The outlet stores are expected to be opened before the end of the first half of this year. This means they should be opened pretty soon. Parry doesn’t say how many outlet stores there will be. Build-A-Bear first entered the outlet market last year.
Instead, Parry announced the company is working on a new Workshop at the new Shanghai Disney resort which is set to open on June 1st 2016. Build-A-Bear and Disney have partnered a lot of times on various toys. Opening a store at a Disney resort seems like the natural thing to do, Parry adds.
“We have partnered with Disney for many years, so there is?a natural opportunity for us to enter that market with somebody we have a longstanding relationship with. We have done a lot of market research, and it shows the brand and our concept will resonate with Chinese families”, he says.
