British toy retailer Hamleys, which operates in India under a franchise agreement with Reliance Retail, is all set to open a flagship store in Delhi, its first-ever in the national capital.
The 20,000 sq.ft. store will sprawl across three floors of the DLF Place Mall in South Delhi’s Saket locality and become operational in May 2012. The popular mall caters to several upmarket localities of the capital and enjoys a footfall of over a million people every month.
The Delhi store will be Hamleys’ third outlet in India after its flagship store in Mumbai (21,000 sq.ft.) and the regional store in Chennai (11,000 sq.ft.).
The store will sell Hamleys’ own branded products as well as those sourced locally from India. The offerings will include close to 5,000 individual SKUs. Hamleys toys range from preschool, construction, radio control, dolls, play sets, and musical instruments to soft toys, arts and crafts, board games and puzzles, science, sports and leisure.
“We look primarily at catering to customers in the age group of 0-14 years. We are however also happy to attend to the needs of customers across a spectrum. You will find young adults and even adults playing away merrily in Hamleys experiential toy retail destination stores,” Sudhir Pai, Vice President and Head of Hamleys (INDIA), told “Images Retail.”
For the Delhi store, Hamleys intends to hold a preview party to be organized a day before official launch. “We would select 25 kids who with their parents can come and see the store before anyone else. They will be treated to a special store tour and a dance party,” Pai added.
In 2012, apart from the Delhi flagship store, Hamleys is looking at opening its second store in Mumbai and Delhi and a store each in Pune, Hyderabad, and Bangalore, according to Pai.
Hamleys, which celebrated its 250th anniversary last year, intends to open 20 stores across India in the next seven years by investing Rs 125 crores, Bijou Kurien, President and Chief Executive, Reliance Retail (Lifestyle), has previously said.
The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Retail tied up with Hamleys in August 2008 and opened its first outlet in Mumbai in April 2010, followed by Chennai in January 2011.
Hamleys, one of the world’s most famous toy retailers, was established by Cornishman William Hamley in London in 1760. Its flagship Regent Street store contains seven floors of toys from famous brands to more traditional and nostalgic toys as well as quirky and unusual products.
– Sanjay Choudhry
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Note: This story was updated on November 28, 2011. Inputs from Hamleys were added and some figures corrected.
