Aneesa Beasley, vp of commercial trading EMEA for Disguise joins PPE to chat about emails, consumer spending habits, licensing and more.
- How long have you been at the company?
A little over a year, I joined in January 2023 – but it feels like a lot longer.
- What is your greatest achievement at the company?
Being promoted to vp in July, Disguise is a great place to support and recognises progress.
- Favourite part of your job?
Variety, my role encompasses all commercial development – product, retail, brand and importantly, price. It’s a great sense of achievement to be able to deliver a product and services for a customer or brand, that delivers on consumer needs and is commercially viable for everyone, while still offering the consumer great quality and value for money.
- Least favourite part of your job?
Emails. We seem to have lost a lot of face-to-face and personal connection following the pandemic.
- Who is the unsung hero of the company?
This is a hard one. We genuinely have an amazing team across the globe, who all work extremely hard, so it’s difficult to single out one person. Disguise EMEA is still in relative start up stages, with a new team, but I am fortunate to work with some of the best veterans in the industry.
I would probably say a special call out to Olivia Lewis, who is our development and licensing specialist, she is extremely organised and holds the team together, keeping us all on track (especially me).
Then our latest addition to the team, Mark Titley, who joined us in December and in a very short time had made a huge impact on some priority projects and is being a massive support to the commercial teams.
- What is the biggest change within the party industry that you have seen since you have worked in it?
I joined the dress up industry back in 2006, and during my time, I have seen lots of change. The industry is niche, and market tends to be cyclical, and we have been faced with a lot of compliance changes. However, the biggest change is the consumer; spending habits and when people are participating in party and dress up and who is getting involved, has shifted significantly in the past five years, leaving the market soft right now, however fortunately licensed dress up seems to be bucking the trend.
- What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Have a goal, build a plan, communicate the plan. Don’t be scared to take diversions along the way, but keep focused on the goal.
- Biggest lesson you’ve taken away from the last year?
The power of marketing and retail activations, to be able to differentiate our offer through more than price.
- If you could change one thing about the party industry, what would it be and why?
Challenges with counterfeit and IP infringements. We continue to see an increasing number of unlicensed products, being passed off as official merchandised products. As a business, we spend time and a lot of money on licensing contracts, product development, marketing and most importantly safety and compliance, and it’s frustrating to see small suppliers, with little overheads bring unofficial and often unsafe products to the market, which devalues the category. It would be great to find a way to eradicate this from the industry.
- If you didn’t work in the party industry, what industry would you work in and why?
I had a break from the industry in 2020 and did a stint in nursery, which was great fun, and I learnt a lot, but I think costume and licensing are my calling.
