Gregory Benassar on Khadou, kidults – and why Pop Mart and B&M have more in common than you might think

Greg, it’s always great to catch up. I wanted to kick off by diving into all things Khadou – for anyone new to this division of Heathside, how would you describe it?
Khadou is the collectible and kidult manufacturing and distribution division within Heathside. Heathside is known for several things – one being the closeout business – but Khadou is not related to that.

It came out of an opportunity we had to distribute collectible and Kidult products into the value channels. That started five years ago, where toy and collectible companies came to us and said: “You have that direct relationship with all these value channels – but instead of just selling products that you bought from us, would you be interested in distributing for, let’s say, standards clients?” So Khadou started with distribution and that went well, so we soon thought about designing our own products.

Fantastic – and which line kicked that off?
Our first real big foray was to sign a pan-European deal for South Park and Only Fools and Horses – so two sides of the spectrum!

Yes, what made those appeal?
They both have a long history, have passionate fanbases and were underserved. We also like innovative IP that we can embrace when it’s on the fringe, before it becomes mainstream. A good example is that we were one of the first to embrace Steal a Brainrot and a lot of Roblox brands. We also – along with Moose – were one of the first to sign Digital Circus. And our latest unserved audience IP will be Mr Bean – we have a lot of SKUS for 2027!

Terrific! And does Heathside’s history in closeout shape how you see opportunities for Khadou when it comes to the kidult market?
Well, recently the closeout space became value channels – stores where no one wanted to see their normal ranges products being sold because the feeling was that it would damage the brand. But, with the evolution of these specialists – and places like Lidl and Aldi being seen as normal food stores – there’s been a shift there. And we try not to generate reorders – we try to generate repeat purchases.

Repeat purchases, not reorders. Talk me through that.
We are not here to push a lot of volume into the market and move onto the next thing. We’re here to manage the life cycle of our products in relation to a community of fans and make them stay with that community for as long as we – and the IP – are relevant to them. That comes from our background in trading card games. Now, you can be very successful with a traditional toy mentality, but this is not really how we see ourselves – we are more collectibles people. In a way, we want to be category managers for collectibles and Kidult items for the retailers.

With Khadou, we are on a path that is quite the opposite of a standard toy business. That model is where a toy company starts with mass – like Smyths – and then tries to penetrate the value channels and the independents. Whereas we started with the value channels, and ramp up the other way.

You mentioned about the stigma value channels previously had, and the evolution they’re going through. So what makes these sorts of retailers a great place to sell kidult items and collectibles?
It’s the repeat purchase model. They need to have the latest trendy stuff – even obscure stuff – and then they refresh constantly. It’s a very difficult business to manage because they need people like us to clear their stock, while still being able to build a brand – stores like Action, B&M or Stokomani still want a prime offering for their customers. So we had the edge that we knew these players really well through Heathside’s history, and we really understand what we buy. And the reason these retailers suit the collectibles space is that repeat purchase model – refresh, refresh, refresh. It’s exactly the same as Pop Mart and Miniso.

When we build a selection of blind boxes, we’re not doing so with an opportunistic view of ‘Everyone wants to buy Labubu, let’s do something like that!’ Doing that – pushing sales and then getting out – would be a more standard toy industry approach. Our approach is to go to retailers and say: “You trust us for selecting trends… You know we understand the repeat purchase model and collectibles… We have built a selection of well-established blind boxes that are performing well in Asia and that are already in Series 6, 7, 8 – so there is longevity. Our proposal is to build a dedicated space for you that we manage and that we will refresh every X weeks.”

We’re not here to sell a lot of volume at once. We’re here to build a destination within their store to create traffic. That’s the big difference between a traditional toy retailer and someone like a Pop Mart, a Miniso or even a B&M. You go into a traditional toy store when you know precisely what you want to buy. But with a Pop Mart, a Miniso or a B&M, you go there because you want to be surprised. It’s an experience.

I’d never thought about Pop Mart and B&M having that connective tissue but you’re absolutely right.
Their shelves are refreshed all the time and you know you’ll see something new. That’s what makes somewhere like a B&M a powerful place to sell these items – just like Pop Mart is. That’s the approach we’re taking and time will tell if it works.

You’re CEO of Heathside and Co-Founder of Saga Alliance. How do you approach being a leader of an organization?
I don’t know if the term leader applies. You have to ask people that I’m supposedly leading! It’s like being a parent, you need to ask your kids! But no, it’s very humbling experience, to be honest. And yes, Saga Alliance is my company, but my jobs have always been personal for me. I turned my passion into a job because that’s the only thing I liked in life. I got fortunate that people trusted me and that I made more good choices than mistakes – but mistakes were made for sure and they will continue to be made.

And let’s be honest, I have no experience and no real credentials when it comes to the closeout business, so on that front I’m highly dependent on the quality of the people that have built this business for the last 20 years. It’s definitely a team effort.

From previous roles, I know you have a lot of experience working with inventors. Do you see a time where Khadou takes in inventor concepts?
Yes, and we started this year, at London and a bit at Nuremberg, to engage with some inventors. We’re at a point now where I can explain the vision for the company and articulate how inventors could help us. We have signed two inventions – Delicious Heroes from Caleb Paullus and another one with an American inventor that is going to be to be showed quite soon.

So yes, there will be more and more space for inventors to work with us within our parameters – a collectible, a platform for different licenses and something that works for kidults. We need to have at least two of those three checked.

And what are some recent or upcoming launches that we should keep an eye out for?
We are very excited about the blindbox line we are building and the long-term, sustainable vision around that. I’m also very excited about what we’re building with trading cards. We started with Steal a Brainrot, which is being sold all over the world – including in the US –very successfully. We are also selling quite a lot of Grow a Garden training cards and we have more that we’re going to announce soon there.

When it comes to distribution, we’ve had an amazing success last year with Console Heroes – they come in old school game cartridges and open up to reveal a diorama. We started with SEGA Megadrive and we’ll be launching PS1 titles to that line. We have big expectations for that this year. And this year, Dandy’s World has been a big hit.

Last question, are you now a card-carrying Only Fools and Horses fan?
The honest answer, because I cannot bullshit my way out of this, is that I’ve watched three episodes. But it’s growing on me because I see the passion of the fans when they see our product. the booth. I have no personal connection because I did not grow up with it, but whenever Brits see what we’ve done, have a smile on their face. And that’s our business. Our business is to create these moments. And we are really excited about the new release of the exclusive Batman and Robin characters this year!

Greg, it’s always great to chat. Thanks again!

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