As it looks to rebuild, Archies may have a few cards up its sleeve

Entering the Archies Gallery at Kamla Nagar in Delhi is nothing short of taking a trip back in time. There’s an unmistakable sense of familiarity despite having walked into an Archies Gallery after what appears to be ages. Back in the 1990s, Archies used to be the one-stop shop for everything – whether it was cards or gifts for a friend’s birthday, or for Rakhi, or Christmas... Not to mention Valentine's Day. 

The Kamla Nagar gallery was, incidentally, the first store that Archies Ltd set up back in 1988. One could say it still thrives, with at least 7-8 customers browsing its shelves on a weekday afternoon. But, surely, the rows of greeting cards, gifts, home décor and chocolates are no longer as big a draw as they were in the ’90s? With e-cards and e-commerce platforms, how has the popular cards-and-gifts brand managed to survive? 

Varun Moolchandani, executive director of Archies, the man who started the brand, says, “Greeting cards are indispensable. They add a personal touch to our gifts — big or small, hamper or décor. I don’t think they can ever be replaced by e-cards or online gifts.” 

This, however, doesn’t mean that Archies hasn’t taken a hit. Besides the era of e-cards, the Covid-19 pandemic, too, impacted the nostalgia-inducing card brand, which saw nearly 80 of its stores – close to 60 per cent of which were in malls – closing down. In FY21, the brand’s net sales turnover dropped to Rs 55.29 crore from Rs 139.32 crore in the previous year. 

The company has, however, recently opened 12 new stores across the country, says Moolchandani, and is aiming to reach pre-pandemic numbers — more than 250 — by next March. This number is much lower than its ’90s’ heydays, however. 

Archies began as a seller of songbooks and posters in 1979. The first order, worth Rs 12, came from a customer in Lucknow. In 1981, the company decided to diversify within this niche sector and began selling greeting cards. Seven years later, it had established its first flagship store in Kamla Nagar, and by the end of the ’90s, the number had risen to over 400. The company also had close to 2,000 franchise tie-ups across the country.

It was also in the ’90s that Archies went public, listing on both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in 1998. Archies stocks peaked in 1999 and early 2000s, reaching above Rs 150 per share in the December of ’99. However, the new millennium saw the shares enter a steep slide, with prices remaining in double digits and below Rs 50 per share for most of the next two decades. Post-pandemic, the numbers have remained paltry, crossing the Rs 20-mark per share only occasionally over the past FY.   

Archies’ appeal doesn’t really lie in the numbers, though, but in the nostalgia it generates. Who can forget the card company’s Mickey and Donald greetings, or the stationeries with Simba from The Lion King (1994) and Genie from Aladdin (1992)? Or the Disney Princess paraphernalia? With its 1984 licensing agreement, the company was foremost among its Indian peers in capturing Disney’s renaissance-era (roughly 1988 to 1999) lightning in the franchise bottle. 

Seems like merchandising again features prominently on the company's road to rebuilding. 

“We certainly look forward to bringing out T-shirts and collectibles with quotes on the pandemic, in the spirit of adding a touch of light-heartedness to the current climate of gloom,” Moolchandani says. 

Besides the merchandise, Archies is also seeking to shift focus online with its e-commerce platform, archiesonline.com. The site offers products like flowers, cakes, and personalised gifts, which Moolchandani believes have a larger number of takers online than in offline stores. 

In 2021, the company also launched a website for beauty and personal-care products. The site lists brands such as She, Police, and Donna Chang among other national and international ones. It is currently under maintenance as Archies works to merge the beauty segment back onto its main e-commerce platform. Meanwhile, the gifting company, which already exports to the United States and European nations, is now looking for partners in West Asia as well and will launch the search with a franchise meet on September 25 in Dubai. 

However, while adapting to the times is necessary, can a brand like Archies ignore the value of nostalgia in driving its sales? Brand expert and Rediffusion Managing Director Sandeep Goyal believes nostalgia might not be enough to revitalise Archies. “Will the magic of Archies revive? I would say it is difficult. It is a brand from the ’70s and ’80s when love was communicated in and through physical manifestations,” he says. “But then physical manifestations started to become virtual. And Archies started to lose momentum and customer franchise. Today, even e-cards are dying. Everything is doable on WhatsApp and Facebook. Everything is orderable on e-commerce. The current generation has no reason to throng Archies,” he adds. Goyal also points to a lack of serious competition for the brand from brick-and-mortar gift shops, identifying Amazon and Flipkart as the dominant entities and the brands to beat.   

Moolchandani, however, is confident about the persisting value of greeting cards, stationery, and the Archies’ quaint little gift items, which have also been the steadiest drivers of sales. In FY 21-22, gifts contributed 48.66 per cent of its total revenue, followed by stationery and paper bags (34 per cent), and greeting cards (11.56 per cent). 

As it looks to rebuild, Archies intends to prioritise street-side stores over malls. Browsing through the one at Kamla Nagar, the question remains: Does the brand still have a winning card?