All Artwork ©SEPS

Retail Sales Get a Bump

Retail sales climbed  in September and advanced 0.6% on the heels of a 0.02% decline in August. The winners for September were again Furniture/Home Décor, Building Supplies/Garden and Sporting Goods/ Hobby. Non-store retail also posted an impressive 11.0%. Department Store sales continued to plummet and declined 4.8%. Macy’s continues to close stores which is creating a ripple effect on mall owners and creates the question of what to do with the empty space. Kiplinger projects a slight increase for the balance of 2016 and is projecting a 3.7% for 2017 which reflects a similar growth to 2016. Everyone seems to be ignoring the elephant in the room being the election and the effect it might have moving forward. We will all have to wait and see on that one!
 
In October, we exhibited for the second time at Brand licensing in the UK.

We were able to secure an improved location this year and had the support of agents from United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and France.  Traffic and interest were both good and it ended up being a busy and successful show for us. Our days were full with meetings and we had sincere interest in several sectors. The major interest came from apparel, stationery, home décor, wall décor, home textiles and women’s accessories. We are currently responding to the requests from the meetings and working with our agents to follow up and hopefully secure several new licensees. It is always great to learn about opportunities and trends in other markets and being challenged to make our art adapt to their needs. We look forward to building our presence in this market and growing our business with the help of our agents. We will keep you informed of our placement and success moving forward.
 
We have recently finished scanning content from the archives of cover art from Turtle, US Kids, and Children’s Digest. This represent all new content for us and exceeds 7,000 illustrations. If you are in the market for Children’s art let us know, this content is terrific and on trend.

 
We are done traveling for the year and preparing for 2017. Please keep us in mind and feel free to share your wish list. We are always eager to help.
 
 

Mike Waldner | Director of Licensing
1100 Waterway Boulevard | Indianapolis , IN 46202
phone (317) 489- 6973 | mwaldner@curtislicensing.com
Curtis Licensing | The Saturday Evening Post