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Toy firms get a talking-to from Consumer Product Safety Commission chair
(Record, The (Hackensack, NJ) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 19--Toy executives came to New York for Toy Fair this week full of fun and games, but first they had to listen to a scolding by a mom who also heads the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
CPSC Chairwoman Nancy Nord berated the industry for last year's recalls involving high lead levels in toys, pointing out that the CPSC ban on such items has been in place for 30 years.
"As a mom and chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, I am very, very angry that we have found so many violations of a standard that should be familiar to all of you," said Nord, noting that there were 19 recalls in 2007 involving toys with too-high lead levels. "These violations show a breakdown of quality control systems your industry was using," she said.
Nord delivered that lecture as the keynote speaker at Toy Fair on Monday.
She delivered a similar message Sunday to the board of directors of the Toy Industry Association, addressing the CEOs of the country's top companies.
She pledged to be relentless in punishing toy companies that violate safety standards in the future.
The toy industry, which is heavily represented in New Jersey, is on the defensive on safety at this year's Toy Fair, which runs through Wednesday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
The Toy Industry Association, the trade group that hosts the fair, had a presenter stationed in one of the convention center lobbies giving speeches highlighting all of the industry's safety initiatives, and telling passers-by that new toys are "among the safest ever."
There were 61 toy recalls in 2007, up from 40 in 2006, but the recalls did not hurt toy sales as much as some experts had predicted.
While U.S. toy sales fell 2 percent, to $22.1 billion in 2007, according to market research firm The NPD Group, many industry experts had predicted even greater declines due to toy recalls, and economic pressures on consumers. "Given some of the struggles the industry faced last year, that's viewed as a pretty good result," said Toy Industry Association spokeswoman Julie Livingston.
The two largest toy manufacturers, Hasbro and Mattel, reported sales increases that exceeded other consumer products. "We had a pretty decent year, all in all," said Neil Friedman, president of brands for Mattel, which ended 2007 up 6 percent, despite being hit by recalls. Hasbro, which had no recalls during 2007, ended the year with sales up 22 percent over 2006.
Wayne-based Toys "R" Us, the nation's second-largest toy seller, which just two years ago seemed to be fighting for its life, reported a 3.1 percent increase in holiday sales and outperformed rivals Wal-Mart and Target.
The recalls also proved to be something of a boon to a number of New Jersey companies that sell to specialty toy stores. Specialty store owners at the show said sales were up, and they saw many new customers in their stores as concerned parents shunned the mass market manufacturers involved in recalls.
"We definitely saw a flight to quality," said Nurit Amdur, CEO and co-founder of Alex, a Northvale-based company that sells craft kits, toys, and baby and toddler products primarily to specialty stores.
"The specialty industry did very well last year. We are seeing people reopening specialty toy stores again," said Amdur, who is a member of the board of directors of the Toy Industry Association.
Jim Madonna, president of Edison-based Gund, a company that specializes in high-end plush toys and gifts, said the recalls apparently made a good number of parents and grandparents willing to pay more for quality toys. His company opened 5,000 new retail accounts last year, he said. "I'm as optimistic as I've ever been" about the future, Madonna said.
Gordon Haas, whose fledgling toy company, Hoboken-based Day Dream toys, was making its second visit to Toy Fair, said most of the store owners he spoke to on the opening day of the fair said they had a good holiday season and have not yet been affected by the much-discussed consumer slowdown.
More than 21,000 industry professionals from 94 countries are expected to visit this year's fair by the time it ends Wednesday.
Some 1,200 companies took over 360,000 square feet of the Javits Center to display 7,000 new products and thousands of previously released games, dolls and electronic devices.
Reyne Rice, toy trends specialist for the TIA said 2008 is shaping up as the year of the "cyber-playdate." Dozens of companies are linking their toys to Web sites where kids can play games and interact with other kids online, following the runaway success of Webkinz.
That toy, introduced by Ganz in 2006, gave youngsters access to codes that let them play online games when they purchased plush toys.
To see more of The Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.NorthJersey.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Record, Hackensack, N.J.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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