Kroger relaunches Toys R Us for the holidays



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Kroger will bring Toys R Us' memory back this holiday season by presenting a collection of the deceased toy retailer's brands in its supermarkets.

Kroger announced Friday it has signed a partnership with Geoffrey LLC, holder of the intellectual property assets of Toys R Us, to place the goods from Geoffrey's toy box in nearly 600 stores under its grocery banners. Special exhibitions featuring images of Toys R Us' Geoffrey the Giraffe mascot will contain an assortment of 35 children's toys priced from $ 19.99 to $ 49.99.

"Geoffrey's toy box offers a unique shopping destination in Kroger stores," said Robert Clark, senior vice president of merchandising at Cincinnati-based Kroger, in a statement. "We are excited to offer Geoffrey's toy box in this holiday season to allow our customers to purchase a selection of toys that formerly belonged to Toys R Us."

Photo: Kroger

Geoffrey's Toy Box units will be deployed in stores starting this month, according to Kroger. The program will include exclusive toys from the Animal Zone, Imaginarium, Journey Girls, Edu Science, You & Me and Just Like Home brands, with product selection varying by location.

"We are excited to partner with Kroger to offer American consumers a neat collection of products from our beloved portfolio of brands," said Richard Barry, executive vice president of Geoffrey's Toy Box.

Geoffrey Division LLC, Geoffrey's Toy Box owns and operates a portfolio of over 20 brands of children's toys, including Fastlane, True Heroes and others.

In early October, Geoffrey LLC reorganized following its acquisition by a group of investors led by its secured lenders. The Company controls a portfolio of intellectual properties including trademarks, e-commerce assets, and data from the Toys R Us and Babies R Us businesses in the United States and around the world. This includes the ownership of the rights to the Toys R Us and Babies R Us trademarks worldwide, except in Canada. At the time, Geoffrey LLC had declared working with potential partners to develop ideas for new retail offerings of Toys R Us and Babies R Us in the United States and abroad that "could bring back these iconic brands of 'a new and redesigned way'.

Toys R Us, based in Wayne, NJ, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2017. At that time, the company had 885 Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores. in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, as well as more than 810 international stores. Despite the financing arrangement and the closure of a series of stores in the United States, this 70-year-old retailer could not get out of Chapter 11 and announced last March the liquidation of its operations in the United States. Fairfax Financial acquired the Canadian operations of Toys R Us in Canada, which has 82 stores, in early June. Later this month, Toys R Us closed in the United States.

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