Geoffrey the giraffe is seen next to a Toys “R” Us truck on March 17, 2005 in Colma, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Toys R Us has a new owner, again.
Brand management company WHP Global announced Monday that it has acquired a controlling stake in Tru Kids, the parent company of the Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Geoffrey brands, the Giraffe brand.
“We are in the brand business and Toys R Us is the most credible, trusted and esteemed toy brand in the world,” Yehuda Shmidman, President and CEO of WHP, said in an interview. “We’re coming a year when toys are on fire … And for Toys R Us, the US is really a blank canvas.”
Shmidman has been Vice President of Tru Kids since 2019. Tru Kids, with the support of Solus Alternative Asset Management and funds managed by private equity group Ares Management, bought the brands and intellectual property of Toys R Us after having filed Chapter 11. bankruptcy protection in September 2017. Toys R Us was unable to come out of bankruptcy on its own after a parallel 2017 holiday season, which led to its liquidation.
Tru Kids has tried several strategies to boost momentum since then, including opening two emerging locations in the United States with the help of the b8ta technology platform. But those closed earlier this year due to little mall traffic, which has been suppressed especially during the Covid pandemic. For a period of time, the website of Toys R Us, a large retail distributor, was run by Target. Currently, all purchases on ToysRUs.com are redirected to Amazon.
“The restructurings affected the company a lot,” Shmidman said. “And then Covid is, hopefully, once a century. But now we get over those two things. And the sky is the limit.”
In the future, WHP said it will manage the global Tru Kids business and guide its expansion. Toys R Us and Babies R Us together have more than 900 branded stores in more than 25 countries: parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East.
In North America, Shmidman said the plan is to reopen Toys R Us stores, ideally a number before this holiday season. He said this could come in a variety of formats: flagships, pop-ups, airport locations or mini shops in other retailers ’stores. WHP has not yet set a number of how many locations it plans to open in the United States
“There are so many malls that will no longer be there in the future, so we don’t need to be there,” Shmidman said. “But we could be in malls with traffic … So we really have the opportunity not only to capture this experience for toys that people crave, but also to capture where [people] i want to buy. It will be very interesting after Covid. “
WHP is backed by a $ 350 million equity commitment from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.