ALMERE, The Netherlands — European wholesale distributor Scala Playhouse has been sold by its owner, the Beate Uhse Group, and will now be known simply as “Scala.”
Scala was acquired by Walter Kroes and Trudy Pijnacker, who operate LegAvenueEurope.com, which sells erotic lingerie online. A purchase price was not revealed at XBIZ post time.
Beate Uhse, with its 96 shops in five European countries, is one of the largest retailers of sex toys and novelties. It also is one of the oldest brands in the business, starting up in 1946.
Up until now, Scala’s current headquarters served as Beate Uhse’s wholesale division.
The new Scala owners said that with the acquisition all employees have been retained, “meaning you will have the same point-of-contact within the organization and there are no direct changes to the ordering process.”
They also said that in coming months, the company will be investing heavily in improving its B2B online infrastructure, stock availability and product development.
Noteworthy, however, was an announcement about one component that they plan to drop from Scala’s current offerings — adult videos.
“The assortment of Scala will focus mainly on toys, lingerie and drugstore with the decision made to remove the film and DVD product categories from our assortment for strategic reasons,” the new owners said.
“Scala will continue its partnerships with your favorite suppliers and remains a one-stop-shop destination.”
Scala also will be moving to a new office and warehouse in the coming two-to-three months, the new owners said.
“We’ll be working hard on making the transition go smoothly,” they said. “The Scala Fair from Sept. 3-4 will go ahead as planned, giving you the opportunity to get introduced to new owners Walter Kroes and Trudy Pijnacker, plus catch up with the existing Scala team for more information regarding the changes.
“We are aiming to be ‘fully reloaded’ from Scala Playhouse to Scala for the upcoming eroFame from Oct. 11-13 in Hannover. We see eroFame as a fantastic occasion to represent the new and improved Scala, demonstrate the excellent level of service you can expect of us and showcase everything our company will offer for B2B retailers.”
Pictured: The company introduced a new Scala logo, dropping "Playground"
