awareness among parents about the need for toys in the development of the child . The ability to manufacture quality toys for the domestic market will result in higher affordability and rapid growth of the industry .
We see the drop in domestic demand on account of the pandemic as an aberration and have no doubts that the Indian toy market will grow exponentially in the years to come !
The domestic toy market is beginning to emerge out of the very difficult times induced by Covid-19 . Lockdowns ensured that malls and stores remained closed for long spells . Funskool has so far managed to remain relatively unscathed during this difficult period when Covid-19 has been rampant . We focused more on manufacturing for our international customers while simultaneously expanding distribution of our own brands in overseas markets , which yielded high growth in our overall export volumes . The focus in the domestic business has been on design and development of several new products , which have been launched . Our own brands like Giggles ( Infants & Preschool ) Fundough ( Dough ) Handycrafts ( Arts & Crafts ) Play ’ N ’ Learn ( Educational Puzzles ) Board Games ( Licensed as well as developed in house ) have all had considerable success . We have also introduced a number of traditional toys & games which have yielded good results and we are expanding capacities at all our three plants .
Licensing is very important in the toy market and Indian companies may have limitations in bidding for global licenses in the near future . The solution could be for Indian companies to have tie ups with global toy companies for manufacturing & distribution of licensed products .
The India toy market will grow to significant levels quickly and it may make sense for toy majors to scout for local partners for their Indian operations .
R Jeswant , CEO , Funskool ( India ) Ltd .
Kids India Magazine - Sept 2021 | Page 5