We have been doing some research this week into what is involved when a brand expands internationally. This is the part that is often missed in the excitement of landing a European order, and it can trip a brand up.

Decathlon has just put more than 500 kids' sports products onto FirstCry's platform in India. Neither business had to build what the other already has, and that is the pattern worth studying, whatever category you are in.

Kind + Jugend runs in Cologne from 15th to 17th September. I am going for one day, an early flight out and a late flight home, and how I plan to spend that single day is the whole point of this week's piece.

Research from Akeneo found that more than two thirds of Google searches now end without a click to any external website, rising to around 80% where an AI summary appears. If your product data is thin, you are not slipping down the results. You are absent from the answer.

Autumn Fair 2026 runs 6th to 9th September at the NEC. The entire Counter Talks programme is free, the one-to-one mentoring is free, and there is a Pitch Live session dedicated to kids, toy, play and clothing on the Tuesday morning. For the price of a train fare, it is the cheapest business development in the calendar.

Here is a live example, and the reasons it worked. A fortnight ago I spent a day in Cambridge with Meena and Mahera, the mother-and-daughter team behind AuraLai. Last week their nursing cover was featured in CWB. That is what building brand awareness actually looks like: unglamorous groundwork you do yourself, a real product decision underneath it, and then the recognition follows.

There is a working summit on circularity in London next month, with roundtables on resale, takeback, digital product passports and the economics of it all. Maternity, baby and children's product has every structural advantage the conversation needs. We are in the room. We are just not loud enough in it yet, and that is worth changing.

Mamas & Papas has completed a refinancing after a record year. The interesting part is not the money, it is the order they did things in. They fixed the route to market first, let the trading numbers prove it, and only then raised. Most brands in difficulty run that sequence backwards.

From the start of the September 2026 school year, English state schools can require only three branded uniform items. Most of the uniform is about to become un-badged, which means parents get to choose, and fabric, durability and provenance become buying decisions for the first time. Here is what the change does, who it hurts, and the schoolwear manufacturer I would point you at first.

Product recalls keep rising and enforcement is intensifying, so the question is not whether it could happen to your brand, but whether you could respond well if it did. Here is why every children's product brand needs a product recall plan, what a good one looks like, and how parents can check whether something they own has been recalled.

Le Toy Van, the British eco wooden-toy maker sold in more than 150 countries, has acquired plush brand Pickles in its first move beyond wood. It is a lovely example of conscious business growth: expanding by backing a small craft brand rather than chasing scale for its own sake. Here is what founders can take from how, and why, they did it.

The best market research is not a spreadsheet, it is a day on the shop floor. After a day in Cambridge with the mother-and-daughter founders of maternity brand AuraLai, studying packaging and merchandising and talking to genuinely helpful store staff, here is why in-store market research is invaluable for ecommerce brands, how to do it well, and why a gap in a city's maternity, baby and children's retail could be someone's opportunity.

AI is arriving in children's products faster than parents' trust in it. Half of parents are sceptical, regulators are moving, and the brands that win lead with safety, not the letters AI. Here is how to bring AI toys to market in a way parents will actually trust.

The Baby Products Association's Concept and Innovation Awards are open for 2026, with entries closing on 11th September. But winning is not the point. Here is how to choose the children's product awards worth entering, and why the expert feedback and visibility matter more than the win.

Children grow out of clothes faster than anything else they own, which makes circular childrenswear the biggest sustainability opportunity in kids' fashion. British organic brand Frugi just won a Drapers award for its circular work. Here is the playbook, and the one move any clothing brand can make first.

In 2026, 37 UK recalls hit children's craft sand and sand art kits over asbestos, from Hobbycraft to Asda. Nobody added it on purpose: it is a natural contaminant that routine toy testing never screened for. Here is why it happened, and the practical supply-chain steps that keep it out of your products.

Pura, the Cheshire B Corp behind plant-based nappies, quietly turns used nappies into pellets that resurface roads through its NappiCycle partnership in Wales. With around 3 billion nappies going to UK landfill a year, it is real circularity, honestly at pilot scale. Here is the story, and why it is a lesson in growing consciously.

Good Bubble, the Manchester sisters' natural children's bath brand, just won its first supermarket listing with two Gruffalo products in 268 Sainsbury's stores. It is proof that clean, honest formulation now belongs in the mainstream. Here is what the brand does quietly well, and what it takes to get your own product retail-ready.

The EU's new Toy Safety Regulation will require a digital product passport on every toy. For brands early in their journey it is a chance to embed good practice from the start, rather than reverse-engineer it later. Here is why passports must be third-party verified, why not to build one in-house, and how to make it a marketing tool.

Winning children's product awards is about more than a trophy: it builds the third-party trust that parents recognise and act on. Paired with genuine reviews and smart gifting, recognition turns into sales. Here is how to choose awards your customers trust, and how to get the most from entering.