The Great British Sewing Bee sparks surge in sales for category at grocer.
Tesco has reported a soaring demand for children’s arts, crafts, sewing and knitting kits across its stores – sparked by the success of BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee series.
The pick up is also good news for licensed properties such as Mister Maker, as well as licensees such as Sambro, Anker, Ravensburger, Flair and DKL among others.
Tesco reported that in the last year, demand for sewing and knitting pattern kits aimed at children rocketed by almost 500%.
A mini sewing machine aimed at children is one of the supermarket’s top selling items, while arts and crafts staples including finger puppets, stencil sets, felt and badge making kits, painting sets and bead craft are all performing well.
Tesco arts and crafts buyer Carolina Amaya said: “It’s great to see youngsters becoming interested in sewing and knitting as a hobby as both can really help children use their creativity.
“Demand is growing so fast that in the last year we have more than doubled the number of children’s sewing or knitting kits that we stock.
“The trend has been inspired by the BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee series which has run for the last three years.
“But it has also grown out of a general children’s revival for arts and crafts such as ‘make and play’ kits which has been gathering pace over the last few years.”
