Just over a year ago, when I interviewed ITV’s then commercial brands director Gustavo Antonioni, he was full of enthusiasm and plans for the firm’s back catalogue of brands and the launch of big tween/teen hope Britannia High.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out how he planned; Britannia High was cancelled after one series and, in April this year, Antonioni took voluntary redundancy from the firm, kicking off a wave of rumours about the health of the business and how many more staff cuts would be made. And third party brands Numberjacks and Bella Sara reverting to their respective owners did little to calm the fires.

Today, however, the licensing and merchandising team is a compact unit of 12 people, largely focused on sales. With a hefty presence at this year’s Brand Licensing Europe, too, the firm looks intent on finally laying those rumours to rest.

“Like any business facing volatile economic conditions we’ve had to make apposite and erudite changes to our structure,” says Aysha Kidwai, director of worldwide licensing and merchandising at ITV Studios Global Entertainment. “We’ve divested our portfolio to concentrate on our own brands and brands that are more effective in the current competitive climate.

“I don’t think it was a blow as such [to lose Numberjacks and Bella Sara]. We have seen more success in recent years with adult focused programming and, therefore, at the present time it makes sense to focus on our core brands that are performing well for us globally. We have a number of kid-friendly brands in our portfolio that perform well internationally, such as Pocoyo and Thunderbirds, which we continue to support with strong effort in each market.”

For Kidwai, these core brands include Coronation Street (which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2010), Emmerdale, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here and Dancing on Ice, all prime time entertainment on the channel. Plus, iconic drama The Prisoner is back.

“The Prisoner was crying out for a remake in this era of retro and cult trends,” says Kidwai. “This contemporary, polished version has an Orwellian and Lost-like feel to it with sublime parallels with modern socio-political themes. I absolutely believe it will resonate well with today’s audiences in the same way The Matrix, Fifth Element and other suspense thrillers do.”

ITV’s portfolio is certainly an eclectic one – “I believe we have something for all ages” – and Kidwai says there is a lot to capitalise on. She’s also optimistic about the overall economic recovery and Christmas sales.

“Retail competition is fierce so it requires licensing companies to be flexible and more creative with their aspirations. We are working with our licensees to develop products that are seen to add value to our consumers lives, rather than be a frivolous throw away purchase. I think the market has overcome the worst and we are now somewhat seasoned to the volatility of the economy, so in theory we should be able to switch to ‘Plan B’ more readily.

“I don’t think it’s been all doom and gloom, it just means we have to work a bit harder for our royalties. An economy bust is the best time to rethink and realign your strategies. I’ve always felt it’s more of an opportunity than a problem.”

Kidwai also believes Christmas sales will take us by surprise: “I can see people revert to more innovative and novel gifting ideas, so this Christmas could swing in favour of more creative or lifestyle driven brands. The anticipation of Woolworths’ closure was, in my view, worse than its actual impact.

“The grocers were expanding their ranges for last Christmas and spring, so it all evened out and as the year went on, we had all adjusted and were offering more targeted or bespoke campaigns. Where it made a huge impact was in the dress-up market and non-core kids brands.

“We are pretty much spread across the board of mid-end to mass market retailers – from Topshop, M&S, Next, Debenhams, Littlewoods Directory to WH Smith and Argos to Tesco, Asda and Morrisons – in a fairly even way presently, so it will be interesting to see where our products go next year.”

Online is also important – relationships are in place with Amazon and Play.com for example – while the possible introduction of product placement in shows could also have a positive impact. “In Consumer Products we are looking forward to the myriad of opportunities this proliferates off-air,” Kidwai continues. “Product placement and integration will help fund programming and give some of our shows a whole new lease of life.”

The exuberance of Antonioni may be a thing of the past, but that in no way means that ITV is any less confident about the future of its licensing and merchandising division and how it needs to carry on in the future. As Kidwai explains: “The big challenges for us, and pretty much every licensor, is sustaining shelf space and building success stories of the non traditional licensees, categories and retailers that we have signed up.”