Toy business gift is a game-changer
Gary Grant, the devout Christian entrepreneur behind the UK’s largest independent toy retailer, The Entertainer, has announced he is handing the business to its 1,900 staff after more than four decades at the helm.
Mr Grant, 66, opened his first shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in 1981 when he was just 23. Today, the chain spans 160 UK stores, with partnerships in more than 850 Tesco outlets and 140 Matalan concessions. But rather than cashing out, he has transferred 100% of ownership to an employee trust.
“If the business had been sold just for money that would not have been passing on the baton in the way in which the family would have wanted,” he told the BBC, adding that his priority was protecting the company’s ethos.
That ethos is rooted in his Christian faith. Converted “overnight” at the age of 32 after attending a men’s breakfast at church in 1991, Mr Grant says his beliefs reshaped both his life and his business. “My attitude to my staff and customers had to be different,” he recalled. The retailer refuses to trade on Sundays, avoids Halloween toys, and donates 10% of profits to charity – even when the commercial tide has pulled the other way.
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