UK toy retailer Hamleys will make its India debut with a 22,000-square-feet store at the popular Phoenix Mills in Mumbai by February next year. Reliance Reliance, which has a 20-year-franchise agreement with the retailer, will set up 20 stores in the first seven years of the agreement. "That is the number that we have planned in terms of stores. We can always increase the number but for now this is what we will set up," says Bijou Kurien, president & chief executive, lifestyle division, Reliance Retail.
Besides Mumbai, other cities on the retailer's hit list include Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai in the first phase of launch. The second store, says Kurien, will be launched in Chennai by June next year. This will be a smaller store, roughly 12,000-square-feet in size. "Stores in Delhi and Bangalore will come up next, but we will first monitor the performance of the first two stores," says Kurien.
Typically, large-sized stores will be set up in Delhi and Mumbai, he says. "These cities also have the capacity to absorb more than one store. So the second store that will come up in these cities will be of a smaller size since the first store will be large," he says.
Internationally, Hamleys flagship store in Regent Street, London, is a five-storey-structure, over 54,000-square-feet in size. Other Hamleys stores in the UK and rest of the world are slightly smaller in size. "The concept of a large-format toy retail outlet is not uncommon abroad, though in India it is," says
