Globe and Mail Update Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 08:19PM EDT
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Ben Varadi is always looking for the magic in a toy. With Spin Master's exploding Bakugan spheres, a "timeless" game involving magnetic cards and marbles that open into mystical action creatures, he's found it. Bakugan has literally exploded onto the toy market, first in Canada in 2007 and now in the United States. Stock sells out as soon as it hits the stores and buyers compete on e-Bay for favoured game pieces. This year, the Toronto-based company is projecting sales in excess of $100 million of Bakugan toys alone.
With offices in Toronto, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Dongguan, over 600 employees and annual world sales around the half billion mark, Spin Master now ranks among the top leading toy manufacturers in North America. In addition to several major toy awards, citations include Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year in 1999, #10 on Profit Magazines' 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies and one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Private Companies. Growth last year was 60 per cent.
Varadi has been with the company since1994, its founding year. He joined pals Ronnen Harary and Anton Rabie, immediately after graduating from the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, to help produce and market Spin Master's first product, the Earth Buddy — a small, pantyhose-covered head filled with grass seeds that sprouted hair when watered. As chief creative director, Varadi plays an active role in product selection and development. In this interview with Incubator reporter, Diane Jermyn, the effervescent Varadi shares how Spin Master takes a toy from idea to best seller, innovative and cost-effective ways to create demand and why he feels the company's internal PR department is key to their successful marketing.
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