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Irish speaking bear wins UK award

Friday, September 21 11:23:50

Babogbaby, the company that produces the hugely popular Irish speaking teddy bear BB Bear, has received a prestigious business award in the UK.

This morning at the UK's Practical Pre School Awards 2012 in Birmingham, the Galway company picked up the Silver Award for its new English and Welsh BB bears in the "Toys and Games 0-3" category.

After a sucessful two years with the Irish BB bear, there are now a Welsh, English and Scots Gaelic version of the cute and cuddly bear, with plans for 4 more languages early next year.

Speaking from Birmigham this morning where owner Adrian Devane picked up the award, he said, "This is a fine testament that these bears will do well in the UK. It was always the plan to do other languages, we just needed time and here we are now in the UK market with 3 new languages. Its is so exciting to pick up one of these awards as they are judged by both toy experts and children themselves."

The judges said of the BB bears, "What a lovely product! We love teddy bears but a teddy bear with a purpose is a bonus. The vocabulary is singular words, spoken both precisely and clearly by a Welsh-speaker. The sensor buttons are easy for baby to find and use. This toy definitely supports early learning goals."

Talking about BB's success, Adrian said, "The bears have the voice of a child which is a big hit with kids. Nicely packaged in a glossy box, this bear is great value for the consumer. Note too that there are no lights, no hard parts or music in this toy, just pure cuddles and fun learning."

The Irish BB bear has been a major hit in Ireland for the last two years with sales in excess of 30,000 thanks to great marketing and media coverage. BB Bear was featured on UTV's Tonight with Jonathan Ross in last season's final episode. As a result, there are now over 120 stockists of the Irish bear in Ireland.

This week also brought another award for Babogbaby when its Welsh BB bear won a Bronze award at the Independent Toy Awards judged by over 3000 independent toy retailers.