The Friday Interview:As is fitting for a man who profits from Disney Princess and works in an environment awash with day-glo colours, Jim Byrne is optimistic about the economy, his business and the future for the toy trade, writes Laura Slattery.
It's Christmas and to top it all off, his chain of World of Wonder toy stores has even got its clutches on the elusive Nintendo Wii console - just "a small trickle", says Byrne, but more than many retailers have reportedly managed.
In Newhall retail park in Naas, one of Byrne's flagship stores is preparing itself for the last-minute festive rush. "Don't forget the batteries!" signs to parents wisely declare, while others give boxed goods the unique seal of approval that is "as seen on The Late Late Toy Show".
At least 35 per cent of the toys it sells fly off the shelves in November and December.
"It's been a very tough year and there's a lot more competition now. We have to advertise more and we have to be very price conscious," says Byrne.
But it looks like it will be a good Christmas, he adds.
"It didn't start as early as other years, but it is picking up. I can see it getting later every year, because people are just so busy now. And people don't have to come to Dublin to shop - the days of coming up on the train on the 8th of December are over."
At the Naas store, there is intermittent squealing from toddlers too young to know it's Christmas, but it can't quite drown out the general sense of enthusiasm pervading the aisles of boys' toys and girls' toys.
This year's Disney success story is the television movie High School Musical, while the Cartoon Network's boy-turns-into-alien-heroes fantasy Ben 10 has been popular among boys.
"There seems to be better boys' concepts this year than girls' concepts," says Byrne.
The toy industry is blessed by playground crazes that can't always be explained by film tie- ins, television advertising or viral marketing.
Staying ahead of the vagaries of kids' tastes is a full-time job for no fewer than 10 of his employees in the buying division. The process starts no sooner than the tinsel has been taken down, with the annual schedule of trade shows in the UK, the US and China kicking off in February.
This year's must-have present, the Wii, is indicative of how much electronic "toys" have hacked away at the market for "traditional" toys. Byrne started selling electronics in 2000, when he ditched the Supertoys name and started selling under the World of Wonder brand, and he hasn't looked back.
Some hot sellers are considerably less new-fangled than the Wii, however. Wooden toys and rocking horses, popularised during the Victorian era, are selling "exceptionally well", according to Byrne.
"When my daughter was a baby, she played with Fisher Price toys and now her daughter plays with them," he notes.
There are still differences, of course: this year's generation of plastic cash registers are fully chip-and-pin enabled.
When it comes to capturing children's imaginations, the toy trade now has less time to play with. "The age gap in which people are playing with toys is narrowing," says Byrne.
Pre-schoolers don't want pretend phones - they want real mobiles. On the other hand, there are plenty of "kidults" around buying computer games. Although families are smaller now, the bright side is that people now buy more toys per child.
It has, he admits, been a somewhat turbulent year in toytown, which has been rocked by product recalls on an unprecedented scale.
Toymaker Mattel recalled 21 million Chinese-made toys, amid fears that they were coated with dangerous levels of lead paint or contained tiny magnets that could be fatal if more than one of them is swallowed (the magnets attract each other and can cause blockages and organ perforations).
The recalls included the removal of more than 22,000 Fisher-Price toys by Irish toy retailers, while Barbie playsets and Polly Pocket dolls were also affected.
In November, there was a recall of crystal bead sets made by Bindeez, which were found to contain a substance that, if ingested, converts into a chemical called gamma-hydroxy butyrate (GHB). It is used by body builders as a strength-enhancer and by clubbers as a euphoriant.
Parents, understandably, have been less than euphoric by this series of safety recalls and it is retailers such as Byrne's that are on the front line. Has there been an erosion of trust?
"The manufacturers were quick off the ball and removed the stock promptly, and we had a no-quibble policy on returns," says Byrne.
"Once people are reassured that it won't happen again, they are happy."
He predicts an upside to the debacle, which eventually saw Mattel issuing a grovelling mea culpa to the Chinese government.
"I think it has been a wake-up call for the manufacturers and you will see better products coming out of China as a result."
Having started life with just one bookstore in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, in 1976, Byrne's World of Wonder is now the second-largest independent retailer of toys in the Republic (behind Smyths).
It has a turnover of €60 million from its 20 stores, which range in size from high-street stationers and bookstores to two-storey toy megastores.
During the peak Christmas season, it employs 350 people across its outlets and at its support office in Enniscorthy.
The expansion has largely taken place since 1994, coinciding with the Republic's economic boom. For now, extending the empire is on hold, although Byrne did recently pick up a Toymaster that was going for sale on the Malahide Road in Dublin.
"If we were to see an opportunity coming on the market, we would take it," he says.
The easing of economic growth does not worry him.
"People are very affluent, the population is growing and there is full employment. I'm very optimistic about the market and very optimistic about the country in general," he says.
"Everyone is spending money, which is what we want them to do."
Happily for Byrne, it is not Monopoly money either.
ON THE RECORD
Name:Jim Byrne
Position:Owner of Byrne's World of Wonder.
Age:62
Lives:Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.
Family:Married to Frances, who works part-time in the family business. They have four children - Damian, Brian, Taragh and James.
Background:Byrne started out as a company rep for a grocery and beverage company in Wexford before deciding in 1976 to open a bookstore in Enniscorthy. He bought a newsagents in the town a year later and ventured into toys in the 1990s, expanding around the southeast from 1993.
Something you might expect:He enjoys reading.
Something that might surprise: When away from Dora the Explorer and Bratz dolls, he plays golf and follows GAA.
