Episode 24: Building Britain’s Best-Loved Toy Store: Gary Grant’s Journey with The Entertainer

About this episode

Victoria Brocklesby sits down with Gary Grant, founder of The Entertainer, the UK’s largest toy retailer. From their humble beginnings in Amersham in 1981, Gary shares how he and his family built a beloved national brand with over 160 stores in the UK, international franchises, and innovative partnerships with retail giants like Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

Gary offers insights into navigating the ever-evolving retail landscape, staying true to family values, and balancing tradition with innovation. He also shares advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and discusses the importance of generosity, culture, and dreaming big.

Tune in for a captivating conversation on resilience, leadership, and the enduring joy of toys!

And you can read some of the discussion below.

Biggest market changes since 1981

Gary Grant: "The biggest changes in the market over the 40 years have been the internet, and in many ways, the fragmenting of people's spend, which leaves the high street in a significantly weaker position than it has been over the last 40 years, because the little bit that's left after people have spent their money on the internet isn't really enough to sustain the high street."

The evolution of The Entertainer

Gary Grant: "Our business is evolving and changing all the time. We're definitely not the business of five years ago and we're not the business of 25 years ago. We're still 100% owned by the family, our oldest two children are both involved in the business, but the family's total involvement has been changing over the last five years. We're entrepreneurs, we know how to do deals, we know how to buy things, but as your business gets bigger and more complex, it's really important that you put people around you that have either been where you're going or who have the skillsets to take you on that journey."

Victoria Brocklesby: "I find that when you've got younger people coming in to the company, it might be their first job, they actually have a better understanding of what younger people want to see from a brand, and that's changed so much over the last 40 years. To stay relevant, you have to listen to those people coming into your business, the younger generations, as well as the people with the experience who have been there and done that before."

Driving the culture of the business

Victoria Brocklesby: "How do you drive the culture of the business to keep your vision and your family's vision for what you want from The Entertainer?"

Gary Grant: "I think when you are actively in the middle of the business, it's infectious. We're very much a values driven business, it's really important to us that we know the direction we're going in and have guidelines put in place for how we behave as a business, how we behave as individuals.

"The Entertainer is probably most known for the fact that we don't work on Sundays. Our staff have Sundays off to be with their families. There are certain product categories that we choose not to stock - if I
wouldn't buy them for my grandchildren, I really don't feel comfortable stocking them in our own shops. You're living and breathing those values every day, so by natural osmosis, those values are embedded in our business."

Building a team and keeping it together

Gary Grant: "We've got over 250 staff that have worked for us for more than 10 years, probably got 30-plus staff that have worked for more than 25 years, and one doing over 40. So these are people that have stuck with us, they've seen me on a good day, they've seen me on a bad day, but they stuck with us.

"And most of those people wouldn't necessarily have joined with a bag full of qualifications, they just joined with a bag full of enthusiasm and commitment and they developed their career."

Get knocked down, get back up

Gary Grant: "Get good people around you, make sure you've got a mentor, people around to encourage you, to cheer you on, pick you up when you get knocked down, because you will get knocked down. There will be some curveballs you hadn't thought of. Well, okay, that's not the time to give up, it's the time to get going again. Over the years we've had more than our fair share of challenges, but there are always opportunities out there for people that are prepared to put themselves out there and go and chase them."

Business as a force for good

Gary Grant: "I really believe that business can be a force for good. Generosity comes in many forms. Our local communities and local society wouldn't operate if it wasn't for generosity largely coming
from businesses that work in and have their head office within the area. I think many, many businesses within Buckinghamshire are big contributors back into our local community in many, many
different ways. Whatever you do, just be generous with your business because you can make a difference to so many people in our local community.

"A second way of being generous is generous with our time. I go into schools half a dozen times a year and speak to young people and encourage them to dream big. If you don't aim high, you won't hit high. If you aim at the middle, you're going to hit low, because none of us ever quite hit the spot. When I say dream big dreams, if you want to be an astronaut you can be an astronaut, so just dream those dreams, but what you need to do is make sure you work hard, because the world owes us nothing. So if you don't work hard, nobody's going to give it to you on a plate."

Why the Bucks Skills Show is a must-attend for businesses

Gary Grant: "Every young person out there has got some nugget of gold in them and we just need to find out what that nugget of gold is and get it and plug it into the right place, and that's why I think the Bucks Skills Show is really important, because you need to inspire young people.

"Many businesses are hidden behind the front door of their offices, but if you can inspire a young person that's in front of you, they're more likely to join you because they feel inspired by you, they go home and start to consider what their future might look like.

"The Bucks Skills Show exposes young people to such a variety of opportunity. It's a really concentrated place and within two or three hours you've just met such a massive variety, so I would encourage any local businesses to exhibit, especially If you're looking to expand and particularly if you're looking for younger people that you can train up and get them on the ladder of being successful. I love trying to inspire the next Gary."

Victoria Brocklesby: "There's 30,000 businesses in Buckinghamshire, we are the land of the entrepreneur, so if you can't find inspiration at the Bucks Skills Show, I don't know where you can find it."

The 'old-fashioned' way of buying toys

Gary Grant: "I have said to people: 'do you remember the toy shop of your childhood?' Take a six-year-old child today, and in 20 years' time ask them if they remember the toy shop of their childhood, they will say 'yeah, it was a brown box that came through the letter box'. Well that's not how to buy a toy. A toy is an experience, it's a treat.

"We want to be an old-fashioned retailer in a modern world. People still want to be valued today, they want to come into a shop and if you know their name, greet them by their name. Kids love running around and parents are always looking for advice on the right toys to buy. We've got little steps that take you up to the counter so that a child can be on the same level as a shop assistant, and when we're talking to children in the shops we kneel down and talk to them on their level. We just need to make sure that people feel comfortable in our shops, feel valued in our shops, and we try and give them the best value we can give them."

Shopping local and competing with the internet

Victoria Brocklesby: "What are the challenges and opportunities you see for retail and the high street?"

Gary Grant: "People think they can get it cheaper on the internet, that's a fallacy. They definitely can't beat all of our prices on the internet. And you can buy in your local town, so use your local shops, otherwise, as that slogan goes, you either use it or you'll lose it. And once a high street starts to slide, you end up with all these empty units."

Some final inspiring advice from Gary Grant

Victoria Brocklesby: "!What advice would you give to business owners who'd hope to achieve similar success with their business?"

Gary Grant: "What I would encourage people to do is put as much time into planning as you can. Planning is absolutely critical. You could change your plan, you can deviate from the plan, but you have to have a plan, you need to know the direction you're going."

"In a market that's moving so quickly, knowing your numbers is critical. Make sure that you've got a really robust financial plan and understand your numbers. Some companies making profits can go bust and other companies making losses can survive because it is all about the cash flow of a business.

"You've got to be looking for opportunities. How can you develop the things that you're good at? How can you diversify into other things? Aim high. You'll only get out of life what you put into life, so throw yourself into it."

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