It would be hard for one single retail
chain to manage logistics / warehousing
across a vast country with varying
transportation / accessibility.
major national chains in India unlike the USA, UK or
France for instance. The classic ‘mom & pop’ store is
still where it’s at in India. There are numerous reasons
for this:
Firstly, India was not a single unified state until inde-
pendence from the British arrived in 1947. Therefore,
India historically was never one single homogenous
entity in practical terms. Even today, India is one of the
most diverse nations on earth, with at least 11
languages spoken. Secondly, while India’s economy is
fast developing, it has lacked the infrastructure and
centralised disciplined planning/delivery of planning
as we have seen in China for instance. Thirdly, logisti-
cally, it would be hard for one single retail chain to
manage logistics/warehousing across a vast country
with varying transportation / accessibility. So, you
can’t expect to access India’s toy market with just a
few retail accounts. Recently some international
franchises such as Hamleys have established a grow-
ing presence in India, but they are yet to hit real critical
mass. There is also a Toys R Us franchisee with plans
for over 60 TRU stores to be built over 10 years, but
again this is yet to reach any real critical mass.
In terms of product categories, Preschool is by far the
biggest category in India. Electronic & Construction
toys represent a significantly smaller part of the
market opportunity in India versus most other estab-
lished markets.
Overall, the statistics quoted may not appear to be
that exciting, however, the key appeal for India is the
potential for growth! The middle class in India is grow-
ing quickly, as i s the appreciation of western brands.
For those companies capable of looking beyond the
next quarter, India currently offers that rare mix of
huge potential growth with the chance to embed
classic brands for the first time. Furthermore, the
place to explore this opportunity & to meet the key
players is Kids India – if you want to see where the
international toy industry meets the Indian industry,
this is clearly an unavoidable trade show.
MANUFACTURING
On the manufacturing front, India hasn’t always been
seen as the place to go for toy manufacturing. Howev-
er, as the toy industry is slowly coming to terms with
the fact that China’s days of being a low-cost produc-
er of toys may be fading somewhat, the reality is that
only India can truly offer hopes of alternative capacity.
While Thailand, Vietnam & Indonesia will inevitably
see continued growth in toy manufacturing, there is
nowhere with the potential to grow exponentially to
cover a significant proportion of the world’s toy
production like India can. China has roughly
4,000-5,000 toy factories, manufacturing in the region
of $30-40bn of toys each year. The only other country
with the scale of industry & potential workforce to rival
China is India. The two countries have a similar popu-
Kids India Mag Issue: July 2017 | Page 05