Floam is described as a microbeadcompound, a modeling clay crossedwith porridge. With hundreds of tinyballs that give it a stretchy quality, alightweight feel and a funky textureand manages to stick to almosteverything without being messy. It’ssquishy, stretchy and can transformanything into a Floam creation.

Readers may recall the originalFloam being sold by Mattel underlicence from Nickelodeon.

“I researched Floam andimmediately knew it was perfect forThe In Thing, so contacted the NewYork-based manufacturers andinitiated discussions regardingdistribution rights in the UK. Adistribution agreement was signed inearly April for TheInThing.com todistribute Floam on behalf of theSAS Group of New York to the UKand Ireland. We have recentlyafforded Magsons a sub distributionagreement to further increase theavailability of Floam.”

With over 3,500 products in itsrange at any one time, The In Thinghas to constantly update its rangewith hot, topical products. “We haverecently secured the sole UKdistribution rights to another superbtoy based product that we will belaunching in either early Septemberor mid-December,” says Jackson.

“We are very confident that thisnew product will prove as popular, ifnot more popular, than Floam.”

FLOAM is the product sold by TheIn Thing that has been hitting theheadlines recently and winning bigretail support in the UK. But how didthe firm end up in the toy market?

Paul Jackson started in retail andonce owned a number of greetingcard/gift shops, so he was ideallyplaced to see what was happening atthe sharp end of the business and thekind of products that were drivinghuge volumes.

When Ty Beanie Babies started tosell extremely well in the late 90s, hequickly realised that there was a hugedemand from the secondary marketfor retired and rare styles, while thestrict account opening conditionsenforced by Ty Europe meant thatthere was a massive number ofretailers who wanted to stock Typroducts but were not allowed.Bingo, a profitable business was born.

“The In Thing was formed in early2000 selling mainly Ty beanies plusPokémon from a very small sparestoreroom above one of my shops,”Jackson recalls. “I started with justtwo staff, who still work for The InThing today, and the rest, as they sayis history. We now have 33 staff andoperate out of a 12,000 square footpurpose built unit.”

That unit is in Accrington inLancashire.

The In Thing has over 20 workingwebsites, with its main two beingTheInThing.com for wholesale and

distribution and IWantIWant.com forretail. Jackson has definitely madethe web work for him and is notscared of developing different sites fordifferent occasions. “We havenumerous ‘mini sites’ that are usuallyspecific to certain products that weare concentrating on at the time.”

The edges are definitely beingblurred between supplier and retailerthese days but Jackson considershimself to be a wholesaler/distributorand takes advantage of the firm’sextensive e-commerce capabilitieswith retail websites. But alwaysselling at the suggested RRP so as notto upset the retailers that it supplies.

To quote from the firm’s site: “As areseller, choose any number of our3,500+ products and sell them inyour shop, on eBay or on yourwebsite. As a manufacturer, we canoffer you a virtual warehouse withnext day fulfilment for all your retailneeds”. The In Thing can post directto resellers’ customers with despatchdocuments detailing their companylogo without the hassle of buying,holding or shipping stock as it hasthe infrastructure to handlethousands of orders a day.

Floam is one product that The InThing has been selling that reallyseems to have caught the public andthe trade’s imagination.

It has even led to the introductionof a new verb in the language of thetoy trade: to floam.

30 ToyNews August ‘06 www.toynewsmag.com

BRAND FOCUS FLOAM

Distributor The In Thing may just have this year’s hitcraze on its hands with quirky modeling putty Floam. IsFloam the answer to retails woes? Jon Salisbury grabsa chat with MD, Paul Jackson to find out…..

Floamsweet floam

The majority of

interest for

Floam has originated

from the United States

where it’s huge.

Paul Jackson

30 TN60.final 24/7/06 5:24 pm Page 1