From Wicked to Wrexham: Robyn Cowling – Head of Licensing at Aykroyds – talks recent highlights and what’s next

Always great to catch up, Robyn! How have the past year been for you guys?
2025 has seen a bumper crop for us! Wonderful Wicked continued to perform well for us, as well as the splendid summer of Stitch and a brilliant performance from Bluey. Aykroyds is very much a full-service firm these days, with launches spanning daywear, nightwear and beyond…

Can you give us a few examples of how broad your specialisms are these days?
Well, with significant expansion outside of our previous nightwear expertise – in the last five years in particular – our materials, finishes, fabrications and embellishment game is super strong… It’s something we’re so proud of.

Has this broadening of focus also strengthened the areas you guys were previously best known for?
Absolutely – all our handwriting is now very trend driven, including nightwear, which looks the best it ever has. This fashion lens is all thanks to the trend forecasting our design team are undertaking. This work is to support our daywear handwriting, but we can utilise that across the business. All departments are now elevated.

As well as working on terrific character-led ranges, I know you also work with some great corporate brands. Can you talk me through some examples?
Yes! Our design team is really enjoying working on some more sporty shapes on the Wrexham AFC collections. We’ve expanded our sales team to service that area… We see such a huge opportunity to open further retail accounts which suit this great brand and others within our portfolio.

Coca-Cola is another fabulous piece of IP to work on; it has such dynamic style guides – and retail appetite has been so strong for this partnership.

Sticking with Wrexham AFC – what have you worked on with this IP?
It’s such a fun brand – so varied. We see significant growth potential for Wrexham as a football club, a lifestyle brand and content-driven IP, with a big following from the TV show. They’re super collaborative and we really enjoy working with them! Our team took a fresh approach to the design solution with these ranges.

We concentrated on the US market for influences on shape and styling on Kids and Adult across full cross-category solutions, including accessories, over a three-tiered approach – good, better, best.

Digging into your relationship with retail, what makes for a fruitful retail collaboration these days?
A collaborative approach is the only way! Obviously, we take our lead from the licensors as to what the focuses are, but we’re always guiding and informing the retailer… We’re the glue that holds it together – and it’s not a position we take lightly.

Each of our account managers works hard to build and maintain rock-solid foundations with their retail accounts, so that they trust us when we make suggestions. All the lovely licensors we work with trust this process, while respectfully adding value and layering onto retailer conversations with a franchise focus.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, what are you excited about?
We have a Babar campaign launching across departments at Primark which is really fresh and cool. We’re also expanding our offerings for Wallace and Gromit and Paddington, which are both due to land big at retail in the coming months.

Looking further forward into 2027, we’ve got some big plans for Shrek 5, while Bad Fairies from Warner Bros. looks great for a really core fashion demographic. The Bluey movie is going to get parents and kids in a frenzy too – and we’re excited to have recently renewed our contract with the BBC… Their new trend packs look great, so it’s all looking super!