Independent Paris based licensing agency Sagoo has appointed UK based licensing sales partnership KJG’s Kirsty Guthrie and BlueSkye Licensing’s Maggy Harris to manage UK licensing activity for their growing Kawaii brand Rilakkuma.

Veronique Pichon, President Sagoo France commented ‘Awareness of Rilakkuma is building fast amongst European Licensees and consumers and this is an ideal time to grow Rilakkuma and its enormous brand potential in the UK. We’re delighted to have Maggy and Kirsty on board as Sagoo’s ‘Team UK’. They both have a wealth of licensing experience and will strengthen our commitment and ability to build successful partnerships for Rilakkuma across our European territory.

Kirsty and Maggy are both well-known to the UK Licensing industry and together have set up a new bespoke Licensing sales service for Brand Owners who require local sales expertise rather than full service brand representation.

With carefully selected retail launches planned from the late summer Kirsty and Maggy are working closely with Sagoo to manage, expand and diversify the Rilakkuma merchandise programme. “Early on in our partnership we both spotted the growing UK market potential for Kawaii brands like Rilakkuma” says Kirsty “and see long term opportunities here in the UK building on Sagoo’s existing Licensee ranges launching Spring 22 from Blueprint (Stationery); Hype (greetings cards) and Difuzed (Apparel and Accessories)”.

We’re delighted to be working alongside Sagoo to deliver additional licensing strength to their team in the UK’ adds Maggy, ’Kirsty and I both have a wealth of experience licensing cute design based brands and we fell in love with Rilakkuma’.

Rilakkuma was created in 2003 by San-X, one of the largest character manufacturing companies in Japan. Rilakkuma’s name – a combination of the Japanese words for ‘relax’ and ‘bear’ sums up this cool character…its relaxed approach to life has made Rilakkuma stand out amongst Kawaii brands and since 2003 it has spawned a global gift and licensed merchandise programme from Japan to the US and Europe. (Word count 331)

About Sagoo
Sagoo is an independent agency based in Paris, who represents licensing & merchandising rights of tremendous brands and properties in France, Europe and worldwide. www.sagoo.fr

About Rilakkuma
Rilakkuma (literally “relax bear”) whose favorite things to do are to relax, be lazy, and eat delicious snacks. Rilakkuma is often accompanied by Korilakkuma, a mischievous white bearcub; Kiiroitori, a yellow bird who cleans up after Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma. Rilakkuma’s stress-free lifestyle reminds us that it is important to remember to relax and laugh a little sometimes!

Ever since its merchandise first went on sale from San-X in 2003, the Rilakkuma character has enjoyed immense popularity. After being featured in many merchandising and industry campaigns, it is now widely recognized both in Japan, the USA and Europe. To mark its 20th anniversary, following the success of ‘Rilakkuma and Kaoru’ the launch of the new Netflix series of Rilakkuma produced in stop-motion animation has been announced. Rilakkuma’s ‘Theme Park Adventure’ debuts on Netflix in 2022 and in 2023 Rilakkuma will celebrate its 20th anniversary.