Gary Grant
Gary Grant
Founder & CEO, The Entertainer Toy Company
Amersham, UK
About the Presenter
Gary and Catherine Grant founded the first Entertainer toy shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in 1981. As of November last year The Entertainer has 166 stores in the U.K., Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with a growing number of international franchise partners. The company is also in partnership with Tesco, operating 850 concessions both in the U.K., and Ireland.
The online presence of the business was founded in 1999. The Entertainer is privately owned, the Grants and their children being the shareholders. Believing that business can be a force for good, each year the family donate 10% of the profits to charities supporting children and families. The company is selective in its product ranges, choosing not to stock, for example, Hallowe’en product or any toys which glamourise the occult. The Entertainer has a policy of ‘no Sunday working’, giving all our staff the opportunity to spend time with family and friends. After all the Grants attended the IMD conference in Switzerland some years ago, the family worked together to develop a Family Constitution. This has provided a moral compass to steer decisions, as generation two and three join the business.
The Entertainer employs around 2,000 staff, the numbers increasing temporarily during the fourth quarter. In more recent years, senior management have been recruited so that family members might be released from the day-to-day involvement, Gary now serving as Non- Executive Chairman and other working family sitting on the Holdings Board. Catherine is a qualified Paediatric nurse and Health Visitor, still involved in the charitable sector - most notably as a facilitator for parenting courses amongst families in challenging circumstances. Their shared hobby is spending time with their nine grandchildren.
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