Royal Wedding - A missed opportunity for licensing

Licensing

May 18, 2011, Seema Seth

Standing amid a jam of boxes some packed and some empty waiting to be filled up, Joe Mathews is checking the list of orders that need to be honoured with demands of plates, cups and similar crockeries with faces of Kate and William adorned on them, for his customers not just in the UK but in other countries also. The chaos inside the shops is increasing with the D-day approaching faster. Akin to Joe, many other retailers, infact most of the retailers housed in UK have reasons to celebrate as they are selling products after products with the royal impressions as memorabilias to make the most of the opportunity during this time.

It is believed that the royal nuptials will provide a 527.1 billion pound boost to UK retail sales with 4 million people in the UK expected to mark the occasion in some way. What's more, the government's decision to declare 29th April a holiday has added impetus to this figure (110 million pound) and sales and memorabilias are expected to generate 157.5 million pounds while tourists will generate an additional 61.5 million pounds in retail sale. Souvenirs including tea towels, tea caddies, trays, models and flags, commemorative books, biographies, albums, stationery, pens, mugs, potteries, plates, vases, T shirts, photo frames, toys, etc will be best sellers (both in terms of physical shops and online sale).

A no-go for license: Albeit, the licensing industry has waited for a long time, sadly, the word "license" will not make much buzz expect when in increasing the licensing hours for pubs and in distribution and relay rights of telecasting the big occasion. Kelvyn Gardner of LIMA informs, "Clarence House ( home of the Prince of Wales, Prince William's father ) wrote to us in November 2010 explaining that there would be no requirement for a license to produce merchandise for the wedding this April. Whilst we regret this stance, we observe that it has been taken in the interests of keeping a 'level playing field' between all those companies who may wish to produce royal wedding souvenirs".

The debate: LIMA members were waiting eagerly for the licensing announcement and had echoed, "LIMA members can produce items of quality that send funds back to the Palace - probably to go into their charity fund-raising basket - it will give us a positive tale to tell. We're fortunate that The Royal Mint, producer of the UK's currency - banknotes and coins - recently joined LIMA. At least one member, therefore, has already announced some official Royal Engagement celebratory coins which will be at the quality end of this market. Let's hope we can do our bit to raise the standard".

But when the no go announcement came, LIMA members were filled with discontent.

Well, license industry may be grumbling on one hand on having lost a big prospect whilst arguing that this has given a chance to all and sundry to produce cheap quality goods, on the other hand the royal wedding is proving to be cash cow for the retailers without having to pay a license fee.