HP-2020-000016 - [2025] EWHC 1451 (Ch)

The toy experts agreed that inventory control was a further factor that was critical for toy suppliers to meet consumer demand and to be profitable. As with the financial management of the business, the Cabo founders left inventory management to Singleton. But Singleton had no real experience of that and did not establish any systematic inventory control mechanisms. There appears to have been no advance inventory planning: no retailer forecasts were obtained at any stage, and Cabo produced no forecasts of its own. That meant that it was unable to plan the supply of stock, leading for example to an expensive decision to airfreight stock to The Entertainer for the intended launch of Worldeez in May 2017.

While Mr Cohen was responsible for liaising with the Chinese factory producing Worldeez, he did not have access to the stock records, which were held by Singleton. He accepted in his oral evidence that no stock management system was ever shared with him. The lack of oversight of stock movements was also apparent from the WhatsApp discussions within Cabo in July and August 2017 questioning the sales figures they had been given by B&M (§166 above), as well as messages around the same time noting problems with stock deliveries to B&M and other retailers.