Five Mile Press Wins With Barbie

She may be 51, but Barbie doesn't look a day over 19. The world famous doll - it's estimated over a billion have been sold - is one of the major licensed brands of Australian publisher the Five Mile Press. The company first started with the Barbie brand in 2008. A mere two years later, the Five Mile Press was awarded Licensee of the Year by Mattel, the originators and owners of the Barbie brand. The award was given to the company for the most outstanding sales growth and performance over the past 12 months.

 "We were very surprised to win amongst the big names that are in the Mattel stable, and we have had a lot of fun working with this brand, our team here has done a very good job putting it all together," says Tony Gerard, licensing director at the Five Mile Press.  "Barbie has a great new look and we have just never looked back since signing it up late in 2008."

The Five Mile Press has been releasing a small range of color and activity books with each new DVD release from Mattel twice a year. "This has helped to create a continuous fresh look and we complement those titles with a good backlist of fashion-related products such as paper doll dress-up titles and the sales have been phenomenal," says Gerard. "It's very pleasing for us to have such fast-selling books  in a tough market like this and we can't see any signs ahead of any slowdown."

The latest Barbie release, Fashion Fairytale, has been an instant top seller in the first week of hitting store shelves. The Five Mile Press expects over 10 million Australian dollars in retail sales by 2013.

The Five Mile Press's Barbie selection also includes sticker books, a letter-writing kit, a pop-up book and a diary, among other products. Plans for 2011 include a Barbie Pink Convertible book where the book converts into a child-sized pink car that little girls can sit in.