Tony joins the international textiles business after 16 years as Sales Director at The Christy Group Limited, a producer of branded clothing and accessories. The Christy Group was sold to Amscan Inc. in September 2010.

At Character World Tony will work with the brand and creative teams to ensure maximum penetration across different retail sectors in the UK, including developing bespoke lines for major retailers.

Character World manufacturers licensed bedding and bedroom accessories and has secured a number of lucrative UK and European contracts with global licensors over the last two years including Disney, Marvel, Lego, Universal, Lucas and Nintendo.

Danny Schweiger, joint managing director at Character World, said:

“We’re pleased to welcome Tony to the team. In his role as Sales Director at The Christy Group Limited Tony worked closely with licensors like Disney to produce and sell licensed fancy dress costumes. This wealth of experience in both the textiles and licensing world will be an asset to our business.

“We’ve had a strong period of growth in the past two years, recently securing a host of new licenses including major Hollywood blockbusters such as Star Wars, Finding Dory, Captain America Civil War, Frozen and Batman v Superman, as well as evergreen brands such as Pokémon and Lego. It’s an exciting time for the business as we continue to grow both in the UK and overseas markets.”

Tony Lewis, UK sales director at Character World said:

“It’s great to join the team at Character World at such an exciting time for the business. The team has grown hugely in the past few years and I’m really looking forward to working with them to continue to build upon the successes in the UK market.”

Character World distributes its products to retailers across the UK, including Argos, Next, Toys ‘R’ Us, Tesco, Asda and John Lewis.

Palatine Private Equity backed Character World in a secondary management buyout in December 2014.