Toys R Us lives! The iconic toy store cancels bankruptcy filing, rebrands as Geoffrey’s Toy Box

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Geoffrey's Toy Box

Earlier this month, Toys R Us announced that its assets would be reorganized with Geoffrey, LLC. This reorganization would bring about the stop of the toy store’s bankruptcy and closing from earlier this year. But, now we have some new news out of the Dallas Toy Preview, where Geoffrey was spotted and a booth labeled “Geoffrey’s Toy Box” was seen (and registered).

Geoffrey’s Toy Box spotted at Dallas Toy Preview

Geoffrey’s Toy Box is a restructuring of Toys R Us, the best we can tell. The “About” section of the company’s Dallas Toy Preview (as spotted by Toy News International is as follows:

Wholesale toy distributor and intellectual property company whose focus is on popular play patterns across trusted brands that kids and parents love. Geoffrey’s Toy Box is a fully outfitted organization with design, development and global sourcing expertise. Portfolio includes popular brands like Journey Girls, Fastlane, True Heroes, You & Me, Imaginarium, Just like Home and more!

There are 35 categories listed at Dallas Toy Preview. Categories such as action figures, bath toys, costumes, doll houses, games, and more all making the list.

What rebranding to Geoffrey’s Toy Box could mean

This rebranding doesn’t have a specific launch date, and it’s not evident if Geoffrey’s Toy Box will ever have physical stores or just be an online wholesaler. Obviously, Toys R Us brings many industry connections to the table, and by restructuring in this way, can work on rebuilding relationships with many major companies.

If I had to guess, I’d think that Geoffrey’s Toy Box will become an online wholesale retailer and try to compete with Amazon. It has been many years since I went to Toys R Us because it’s just easier to click “order” and have it show up at my door, never leaving the house. Obviously, even Amazon is opening stores so there is some merit to that. But, it’d be in Geoffrey’s Toy Box’s best interest to hold off on retail locations for now while it attempts to gain a foothold in the toy-selling industry.

Of course, all of this is speculation at this point because we’ve only seen mention of Geoffrey’s Toy Box at the Dallas Toy Preview, and the news of Toys R Us being acquired after canceling its bankruptcy run. I’d love to see Geoffrey’s Toy Box come back to my local neighborhood and browse the shelves, but I just don’t think that’s in the cards for this once-great retailer.

[9to5-press-release]

WAYNE, NJ – October 2, 2018 – Geoffrey, LLC, Toys “R” Us, Inc.’s intellectual property holding company subsidiary, announced today that it is moving forward with a plan for substantially all of its assets to be acquired by a group of investors led by Geoffrey, LLC’s existing secured lenders.

The announcement was made following a five month marketing effort by Boston-based Consensus, an investment bank retained to market the assets of Geoffrey, LLC, that resulted in several formal and informal proposals to acquire the intellectual property assets. After considering such proposals, it was determined that the proposal from the existing term lenders was meaningfully higher and better than any other global bid or the sum of the bids received on individual assets. The transition of the business to its new owners is pending approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court and all major creditor constituencies are supportive. Geoffrey, LLC thanks all parties that participated in discussions with the company over the prior months, particularly those that submitted proposals, for their thoughtful and diligent engagement.

Geoffrey, LLC, as reorganized, will control a portfolio of intellectual property that includes trademarks, ecommerce assets and data associated with the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us businesses in the United States and all over the world, including a portfolio of over 20 well-known toy and baby brands such as Imaginarium, Koala Baby, Fastlane and Journey Girls. The reorganized company will own rights to the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us brands in all markets globally, with the exception of Canada. It will also become the licensor of the brands to the company’s existing network of franchisees operating in countries across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and in South Africa.

In addition to continuing to service these markets, the new owners are actively working with potential partners to develop ideas for new Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores in the United States and abroad that could bring back these iconic brands in a new and re-imagined way. Geoffrey LLC will provide additional detail on this front as it becomes available.

[/9to5-press-release]

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