With Funko announcing many new products at this years London Toy Fair, Funko have announced that they have purchased “Underground Toys”, which is the distributor of Funko products throughout Europe.
Here is the full press release:
Funko, one of the leading creators and innovators of licensed pop culture products, announced today that it has completed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Underground Toys Limited (UTL), a leading creator, manufacturer and distributor of licensed products. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2001 and based in London, UTL is a provider of award winning toys and entertainment products under licensed brands that include Star Wars, Doctor Who, Marvel, WWE and DC Comics. In January 2014, Funko and UTL entered into a European distribution agreement whereby UTL exclusively distributed Funko products along with its own range of licensed merchandise to a network of European retailers, including Toys “R” Us, Tesco, ASDA, Carrefour, and FNAC.
“Over the last two years our relationship with Underground Toys Limited has resulted in an extensive increase in the distribution of our products throughout Europe,” said Brian Mariotti, CEO of Funko. “This transaction will expand upon our already successful relationship and fully unite Funko with the Underground Toys Limited team to support and advance our international growth strategy. We are excited to apply our unparalleled creative design and speed-to-market capabilities to drive continued growth in the business and position ourselves to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities ahead.”
Funko’s operation of the EMEA business will be led by Andy Oddie, who will assume the position of Managing Director–EMEA. “We have been Funko’s European distributor for some time now and are excited to join the world’s leader in pop culture licensing,” Oddie said. “Funko and Underground Toys Limited are a natural fit given our shared commitment to high-quality, stylized pop culture products and we see great opportunities to create compelling cross-category pop culture offerings by leveraging our combined skills and experience.”
Matt Norris