Hamleys entered Indian in 2010 with its first store at High Street Phoenix Mumbai and is currently the largest toy retailer in India with 100 stores in 36 cities.
Reliance Brands on Thursday rolled out its 100th store of Hamleys, a milestone reached barely weeks after Reliance completed acquisition of the iconic British toys retailer last month. By opening the 4,500 sqft store in MGF Metropolitan Mall in Gurgaon, Reliance took the number of Hamleys store in the Delhi-NCR to 16 outlets.
Hamleys entered Indian in 2010 with its first store at High Street Phoenix Mumbai and is currently the largest toy retailer in India with 100 stores in 36 cities. Currently, the Reliance-owned Hamleys operate 190 outlets globally and more than half of them are in India. “Every year for more than 3 million families a visit to one of the 100 Hamleys store in India is a reward in itself,” Darshan Mehta, chief executive of Reliance Brand said in a statement. Last month, Reliance Industries said its subsidiary Reliance Brands had completed acquisition of London-based Hamleys for about Rs. 620 crore (GBP 67.96 million) in an all-cash deal. In May, Reliance Brands had signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% stake in Hamleys Global Holdings from Hong Kong-based C.Banner International. Prior to that, Reliance Retail’s marquee label operator Reliance Brands was the India master franchisee for Hamleys, which reputedly has its origins in the world’s oldest toy store in London that was opened in 1881.
