Welcomes New Partners in Spain & Portugal, Eastern Europe and India

LIMA, the trade organisation for the estimated $180+ billion worldwide licensing industry, is extending its international reach yet further with the appointments of its first official representatives in Spain & Portugal, Eastern (New) Europe and India. Each in-country partner will be tasked with creating educational and networking opportunities for the licensing industry as well as promoting their individual markets to the LIMA membership globally.

All the partners are well-known champions of licensing. By teaming up with LIMA, they will have the opportunity to offer improved training and services to their local licensing community, both encouraging new members to join the association and also increasing best practice and professionalism across the board. At the same time, existing members of LIMA will now have an official link to representatives within these emerging markets.

The new partners are as follows:

Spain & Portugal
LIMA is partnering with Ediciones Just, based in Barcelona, a trade media group that publishes magazines including Juguetes B2B (focused on toys), Puericultura Market (nursery magazine) and Licencias Actualidad (licensing magazine). The CEO of Ediciones Just is Emili Alsina and Jana Robles is Sales and Marketing Manager.

There are around 800 licensees and 45 agents and/or owners in Spain and the Spanish toy sector is particularly powerful, with over 32 per cent of all toys licensed in Europe coming from Spain. Together, LIMA and Ediciones Just will continue the work of promoting the development of licensing in Spain and Portugal. LIMA will sponsor Ediciones Just’s activities, such as the Annual Forum of Licensing, whilst LIMA members will have access to basic research into the market (in-depth reports at discounted rates).

“New Europe” (comprising some 35 countries including the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Poland and Turkey)
LIMA’s latest partner for “New Europe”, based in Croatia, is Creata, creator of the Licensing (Factory) New Europe show and conference, happening this year in Zagreb from 11th – 13th November. The main contact will be Zeljko (William) Krnjak, a journalist by background, who has already developed significant new licensing and IP initiatives in “New Europe”.

“New Europe” is a vast and underestimated market, with some 400 million consumers. The partners aim to bring greater global understanding of the many regional, cultural and legal requirements of doing business in emerging European markets. They will also seek to increase knowledge and skills of licensing professionals on the ground through networking, webinars, workshops and other licensing events.

India
LIMA is teaming up with License India, which is a part of Asia’s leading franchise solution company, Franchise India, which has over 11 years experience and an established network across different industries. License India excels in the licensing space with its strategic and knowledge based verticals – Publications, Portal and Events. A well known licensing media service company, License India publishes India’s leading licensing publication, Branding Licensing, has a portal www.licenseindia.com and conducts extensive multicity licensing shows, the Brand Licensing & Merchandising Shows. The upcoming flagship show, Brand Licensing India 2010 will be held on 11th & 12th December 2010 in New Delhi and is India’s largest licensing exhibition, including awards and workshops. Gaurav Marya, who is the President of Franchise India, will be the main representative in the country.

Licensing in India is a budding industry with fashion and entertainment licensing already well established. Character licensing sales were estimated at $100 million in 2009 and sports licensing is the fastest growing category. Not only will the partnership help to develop this industry domestically but will spread knowledge about the opportunities in India amongst the global LIMA membership. It is estimated that in the next 2-3 years, some 40 per cent of the major global licensing players will want to enter this market and LIMA is hoping to play a significant role.

Charles Riotto, president of LIMA, comments, “One of our key roles is to help our members do business internationally. In particular, we have identified the BRIC countries...Brazil, Russia/Eastern Europe, India and China … as being of high strategic importance to our members. These are markets with amazing potential. By encouraging mutually advantageous relationships with representatives in those countries, we are helping to open up these opportunities and support the growth of emerging licensing communities.”