Quality time

JIM RICHARDSON confesses he did not spend too much time playing with Lego as a boy. But that has not stopped the 48-year-old, who has three children, building a multi-million pound business out of spin-off products associated with the Danish brand.

Having become a licensee in 1998, he was able to use his own expertise as a watch designer to create novelty watches and clocks on the back of the Lego brand.

He says: “I don’t ever remember getting any Lego when I was a kid.

“We weren’t from that great a financially strong background. But it is a great product and it is a fun industry to be in.

“We are a very odd part of the watch business.

We make watches that kids can build. It goes against traditions of the watch business, but you have to get to the heart of what the brand is about.”

Traditionally, Lego sets consist of colourful interlocking plastic bricks to make objects such as buildings, vehicles or anything that captures young imaginations.

Recently, kits with instructions based on Hollywood films have become bestsellers, with a wide range of scope for spin-offs.

Jim says: “Construction is a core value of the company, so we build all of that into our products.

“With our watches, the kids don’t just wear them. They are a fashion item and you can build it yourself and all of the pieces come off.

The child can use different colour combinations and create their own version of the watch.”

Characters associated with the firm’s business partners such as Lucas Films, which makes the Star Wars movies, now adorn the smart Tyneside offices where ClicTime’s products are created.

Jim says: “The clocks are based on Lego mini figures. Although they wake you up in the morning, the child or parent is buying it for the emotional attachment the child has got with the character. That is what sells these items. It has got nothing to do with the fact it is a clock.”

From relatively small beginnings, ClicTime Holdings is now a global firm, with an annual turnover of £18m.

As the sole timepiece licensee for Lego, it sells 2.5 million watches and clocks a year around the world, with more than 30 staff in offices in New York, Hong Kong... and Blaydon.

The company moved to the former vicarage of St Cuthbert’s Church last year from its previous base in Ponteland, Northumberland, where Jim lives.

Today, the unassuming stone-built property, once used as a housebuilder’s HQ and by the NHS to help adults with learning difficulties, is home to the company’s creative talent.

Jim says: “We do everything ourselves. We design the products ourselves with the design team in this building and make our own products right from the plastic granules to the finished article in a factory in the Far East. Then we bring it back to the UK to distribute through retailers such as Argos and John Lewis and different people like that.”

Although Lego has been around since the mid-20th Century, the rise of modern play equipment and computer games meant the toy market has become more and more crowded.

When Jim began working with Lego, he could not have predicted that the brand would enjoy such a resurgence of popularity and become such a big part of popular culture.

“They had some difficulties making the transition, but they started to license products that are going to engage children in a positive way, including watches, clothing and computer games.

“They want to give them positive experiences of their brand outside the building bricks, and we were one of the first licensees.

Jim Richardson

“Lego has been a powerhouse in their own field.”D ESPITE the recent recession, which started in 2007, the last seven years have seen Lego and ClicTime expand their businesses exponentially.

While many companies were going bust as the banking crisis took hold in the years that followed, ClicTime has grown to ten times the size it was before the economic downturn.

Jim says: “Children’s products are interesting.

There is one thing that parents don’t tend to cut back during recessionary times and that is children’s gifts. They will still buy kids Christmas presents and something for birthdays.

“They may keep their car longer than normal or keep their shoes a little bit longer, but for their own children they don’t stop spending.

“Kids’ products can weather a recession quite well.”

It is hoped the release of The Lego Movie, an animated family feature that sends up and subverts corporate and consumer culture, will only further the popularity of the brand.

Jim says: “The film is going to be huge. It is pretty massive for us. There is no reason why it shouldn’t do well.

“Lego has this endearing quality to it.

“We have either all played with it when we were children or our kids now are playing with it.

“It has got tremendous personality.”