Hamleys' Noah's Ark + Reliance Toy Stores
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Reliance Retail will setup Toy stores in India in association with UK based Hamleys owners of Noah's Ark chain of stores. Reliance has explored to venture with American Toys'R'Us before striking a deal with Hamleys. It is believed that Reliance pipped Pantaloon in the negotiations.Reliance plans to open Hamleys in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai initially and each store is expected to be around 25,000 sft in size. It is still not clear about the holding structure in the JV due to FDI regulations. Since Hamleys is a single brand retailing, they can hold upto 51%. Hamleys operates one of the world's largest toy stores in London occupying the entire 7 floors of the building.
This is Reliance Retail's third major deal with UK company after Marks & Spencer and Vision Express.
