Toys ‘R’ Us Aims for Return With New Look and Name
Written by SOURCE on February 12, 2019
While it wasn’t as heartbreaking as it would’ve been when you were, say, seven, it was still a pretty big bummer when Toys ‘R’ Us filed for Chapter 11 back in September 2017.
Despite that, uh, minor hiccup(?) the brand still has plans to reemerge by the time the holidays come creeping around towards the end of this year. According to Richard Barry, who’s an ex-Toys ‘R’ Us executive, and current CEO for the new company Tru Kids Inc., he and his team are ironing out the kinks of opening up free-standing stores in addition to stores within already existing shops. In addition to that, Barry says that e-commerce will be a major factor in the company’s re-birth.
On that subject, in October 2018 a company calling itself Geoffrey LLC won an auction for the dying company’s assets to try and bring the brand back from the dead. A month later they found roughly 600 Krogers in which they set up Geoffrey’s Toy Box shops.
Fast forward to January 20, 2019, and Barry (in partnership with several other ex-Toys ‘R’ Us executives) founded Tru Kids which is responsible for managing ’90s staples like Toys ‘R’ Us, Babies ‘R’ Us, and also Geoffrey brands.
“These brands are beloved by customers,” Barry said. He added that his company will look to put together physical stores of up to 10,000 square feet, which would be roughly one-quarter the size of OG Toys ‘R’ Us’s. He further went on to stay that the company has the support of many toymakers, while simultaneously acknowledging that there were many partnerships that got burned when the company liquidated.
As it currently sits, CBS News reports that the company is looking to open 70 stores in Asia and Europe. At the moment, Toys ‘R’ Us still operates around 800 stores outside of the states.
