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Licensing welcomes Crufts and the Kennel Club(Posted: 17-03-2010)

By Richard Latter

An invitation to Crufts? As a dog lover it would be hard to turn down. The mention of Crufts immediately evoked memories of watching Blue Peter’s visits each year when I was a child.

4Sight Licensing Solutions have recently signed up to represent the Kennel Club and Crufts to help build a range of merchandise around these two iconic brands, and used the first day of this year’s show to officially launch the programme, which has the advantage of being able to target the dogs as well as their owners.

We all know of the Kennel Club, but who would have guessed it was formed as long ago as 1873? From its humble beginnings it has grown to become the world’s most renowned and prestigious authority on dogs. From a potential merchandising point of view, it also has an exciting 150,000 unique users each month on its website!

Crufts itself seemed to run smoothly despite the 35,000 plus visitors and 7000 plus dogs expected every day. The average spend per visitor in 2009 was £156, and the exhibition stands were doing brisk business from what I could see. The first official licensee was exhibiting their new product range, and if the general appetite for dog-related merchandise is as buoyant as it seems to be, then this could well be a winner.

I don’t think Crufts is quite ready for my collie/spaniel/terrier-cross yet, but maybe she’s ready for a Kennel Club branded coat………..