Following the takeover of large sections of Smoby (Lavans les Saint Claude / France; www.smoby.fr) by the Simba-Dickie group of companies (Fürth / Germany; www.simbatoys.com), the French toy manufacturer is now under new management. In May, Thomas Le Paul (32), who was previously managing director of Simba-Dickie in Italy, was appointed managing director of the company, which has been renamed Smoby Toys SAS. According to French press reports, he expects sales of around EUR 100m for the operations now managed by Simba-Dickie. In the 2005/2006 financial year, Smoby had sales of EUR 350m. Extra staff are to be hired in France in addition to the employees originally taken over by Simba-Dickie.

In Germany, the company’s marketing operation – now called Smoby Toys GmbH – has been relocated from Rodgau to the company headquarters in Fürth. Julius Grimm has been appointed managing director. He will retain his responsibilities as managing director of Simba-Dickie group company BIG (Fürth; www.big.de).