Licensing group to strike up more brands

Lisle International Licensing (LIL) hosted an official office opening ceremony with the Lord Mayor, Coun Reverend Alan Taylor, as guest of honour yesterday evening, having moved into the premises in the Whitehall Waterfront building in August.

LIL was founded in 2010 by Colin Lisle and a team of partners including Gayle Tarrant, who formerly worked in licensing for Walt Disney, Francesca Lisle, formerly of Santoro Graphics near Rotherham, Clive Crouch, former chief operating officer at GMTV, Russ Hornsby, owner of Cepia LLC, and Christine Lisle, director of Colin Lisle & Associates. The company started in Wetherby, making its Leeds office its second base.

Miss Tarrant said Leeds houses “some great businesses” and provides excellent transport links. She added: “Talentwise, I think there’s a lot of creative and talented people in Leeds. We see it as an up and coming city.”

She said the licensing industry “isn’t as present up north as it is down south”, stressing the importance of bringing it to the region. Mr Crouch said the industry was worth £904m in the UK between January and June 2011.

LIL currently has a head count of nine and has three brands on its client base. Among them is ZhuZhu Pets, owned by US company Cepia LLC, which has grown from four interactive hamsters, into a range of pets, playsets and accessories. LIL is the master licensing agency for ZhuZhu Pets outside North and South America, and helped it partner with companies such as Egmont and Activision to create books and DVDs sporting the brand.

This summer, LIL took on two further brands, CITV show Almost Naked Animals, and fashion lifestyle brand Pampered Girls. Miss Tarrant said: “This time next year we want to have six brands. That’s our benchmark for solidifying us as a company.”

She added: “We are trying not to grow too quickly. Given the economic situation at the moment, we are trying to be safe and look after our existing staff. We are making sure we grow at a consistent rate to allow us to bring in at least one head count within the next year as a minimum.”

The Whitehall Waterfront office location is also home to Intertoy/Colin Lisle & Associates.