Plush toy specialist Aurora World is extending its Sparkle Tales range to include additional on-trend unicorn styles, exotic birds, alpaca and dragons.

Sparkle Tales, which offers soft, multi-coloured plush toys, was added to the Aurora portfolio two years ago.

A cuddly Alpacha has its own ‘sparkly’ tale to tell in travel retail.

Aurora World Travel Retail Sales Manager Garry Stoner said: “Sparkle Tales has been a winning offer since day one; the unicorn craze in particular has continued to be exceedingly strong and sales have underlined the popularity of the concept.

“The range has come a long way since its launch two years ago, now consisting of nearly 100 SKUs. We also have plans to release an additional 40 styles later in Q3, so the future it very exciting.”

The unicorn ‘phenomenon’ in the toy and other product categories is well known. According to an article in The Telegraph, the legendary creature headed the list of ‘must toys’ in 2018, and a #unicorns search on Instagram serves up almost 9 million posts.

The same article points out that the unicorns’ popularity is driven by millennials who are now reaching parenting age themselves.

New styles, including keyclips, have been added to the Unicorn range. Exotic Birds includes Penelope Peacock, Flavia Flamingo, Tropica Toucan, Calypso Parrot, or Jasmine Swan while the Sea Life range has been boosted with Narwhals, Penguins, Octopus’, Stingrays, Turtles, Crocodiles, Seahorses and Clown Fish.

Dragons, Fancy Pals, which offers a sparkly unicorn with a handbag and reversible cushion, and a smaller version (7in) of the Butter Alpaca are included in the extended Sparkle Tales line.

Stoner noted that its consumers are trading up, with the average price point increasing a double-digit percentage to over €13.

Aurora’s products are highlighted in travel retail with a small-footfall merchandising unit which contains 20 top-selling SKUs.

This Tropical Toucan is a bright addition to the Sparkle Tales range.

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