Hema: Jip and Janneke popularity waning, kids love Minions, Maya the Bee

Hema is seeing a waning popularity of Jip and Janneke among kids, who are showing an increasing interest in other characters like the Minions and Maya the Bee. This is according to new Hema CEO Tjeerd Jegen. "No in-depth market research is needed to see that today's young children also have other book and film heroes", he said to newspaper AD. The department store chain does not have any intention to get rid of the iconic children's characters, created by author Annie M.G. Schmidt and illustrator Fiep Westendorp, however. Hema is merely considering adding a few colleagues. "We currently have to consider whether we have need to look at other childhood heroes for those aged 3 to 8 years that we can include in our range, but we are not thinking about saying goodbye to Jip and Janneke", a spokesperson said to Metro. "We are still very happy with the two. But in the context of renewal, it is never wrong to see if in addition to Jip and Janneke there are other opportunities for new heroes." Both the spokesperson and the CEO emphasized that whoever the new heroes will be, must fit well with Jip, Janneke and Takkie as well as with Hema's image.