Reliance Retail, the nation’s main retailer which owns iconic British toy model Hamleys and home-grown toy model Rowan, has entered right into a three way partnership with a Haryana-based agency for native manufacturing to satisfy the rising demand.
Photograph: Sucheta Das/Reuters
The firm has entered right into a three way partnership with Sonipat, Haryana-based Circle E Retail to vertically combine its toy enterprise.
“We additionally had a JV with Circle E retail for toy manufacturing for vertical integration for our toys retailing enterprise,” stated Reliance Retail CFO Dinesh Taluja throughout an earnings name final week.
The firm is now engaged on a technique of integrating processes from design to shelf, in accordance with trade sources.
Under this, Reliance Retail would have management over your entire points of the toy ecosystem, proper from designing and manufacturing to retailing of the product.
This can even assist Reliance scale back dependency on third-party producers in phases.
This new enterprise will cater for each the toys manufacturers – Hamleys and Rowan, which Reliance Retail owns, the sources added.
Besides, Reliance Retail is a significant participant within the B2B toy section, the place it operates via Rowan.
Circle E Retail has a specialisation in toy manufacturing. It has a contemporary manufacturing unit in Haryana and has a licence to fabricate and distribute a variety of toys.
An e-mail despatched to Reliance relating to the event remained unanswered on the time of submitting of the story.
Last yr, Reliance Retail expanded its model Rowan from the B2B wholesale to the conventional retail market additionally.
The concept was to faucet the fast-growing reasonably priced branded toy market with smaller store flooring.
Reliance Retail acquired Hamleys, the world’s oldest toy retailer, in 2019.
This was the primary acquisition of a world retail model by Reliance Retail.
Hamleys presently has a world footprint in over 15 international locations.
In India, Hamleys is the most important chain of toy shops working 100+ shops in 36 cities . In June 2022, Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL), a unit of RRVL, introduced a three way partnership with Italian firm Plastic Legno SPA and bought a 40 per cent stake within the latter’s toy manufacturing enterprise in India.
With each manufacturers in its portfolio, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) is among the main toy distributors.
Hamleys primarily operates within the premium house, whereas Rowan performs within the mid-premium and mass section with its reasonably priced choices.
According to a joint report by trade physique FICCI and KPMG, the Indian toy market was estimated to be round $1 billion in 2019-20 and is predicted to double to $2 billion by 2024-25.