"Today’s parents want their children to play with the same toys they enjoyed when they were young" | Key4Communications |

Juan Carlos Altares is in front of sales and marketing of the Spanish subsidiary of Playmobil, a multinational with headquarters in Germany, but also manufacturing in Malta, Czech Republic and Spain, with an annual turnover of more than €500 million. Altares explains the success of these iconic figures three inches high on the educational values they express.

Playmobil won in the last Nuremberg Toy Fair a best ecological toy prize, for a set that ran on solar energy. Do you think this trend focused on environmentally friendly products will continue during the next years?
Playmobil adjusts its products to values, social changes and technological advances, and without any doubt, ecology and environmental concerns have gained prominence in the development of our products in recent years.

The company was already taking into account the ecological aspect of their production processes, by reusing plastic waste generated in toys manufacture to produce our Lechuza planters. Playmobil therefore has tried to harness the educational factor of their toys to convey values such as the recycling of energy and commitment to renewable energy, with the intention of reinforcing a more sustainable production system.
 
Which other trends do you think are the most significant?
As society becomes more aware of ecological issues, such as new means of transportation and renewable energy, we hope that the toy industry will also be incorporating these advances.

The tendency, perhaps, will be the development of products and components of products inspired by these technological advances in the medium and long term, and not just focus on fads that may have more commercial risk.

How does traditional toys face competition from new technologies? Are parents aware of the importance of these toys?
Reality is showing us that today’s parents want their children to play with the same toys they enjoyed when they were young. It also enables them to interact and play better with their children, as they know how to use the traditional toy.

Parents are aware of the importance of traditional toys, and they know that a brand or a toy is present in the market after several generations thanks to values such as safety, quality and fun provided. Parents do not want to risk the security, education and the future of their children, and this is why they commit to reliable, secure and recognized brands in the toy market.

What are the main challenges for the toy industry?
The main challenge of the toy industry is to overcome the current difficult economic situation and take advantage of its experience in order to transform this crisis into an opportunity to develop new products, and also beat seasonality of toy consumption.