Toonz Retail India, a one stop shop for kids aged up to 12, is targetting to set up 200 stores in the country in the next five years, of which at least 10 would be in Kerala, especially in smaller towns.
The company's major presence is in South India with about 35 stores out of 50 spread in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, according to Managing Director and CEO Sharad Venkta. It also has stores in Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.
"While we are expanding our reach to other parts of the country we continue to focus on south India and I am of the view that more than 50 per cent business and expansion will be driven by south India," Venkta told PTI.
Investment in every store ranges from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh depending on the store size and market, he said.
Asked if they had plans to start stores abroad, Venkta said the company was presently focussing on consolidating its presence in India.
"There are some talks for International business however that largely in line of supplying our brands "Womom' and 'SuperYoung' to our business partners. These talks are in very initial stage and nothing has been crystallised as yet," he said.
Pointing that Kerala was an 'extremely important' market, he said presently Toonz has 10 stores in the state, including at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam , Kochi and Kozhikode and has plans to open 10 more soon.
"While are looking at increasing our presence in market like Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, we are also looking at expanding our presence in markets like Kottayam, Kannur, Thrissur and Thiruvalla," he said.
Promoted by Ankur Aggarwal and managed by a team of highly experienced professionals, who are pioneers in the fields of retail who expertise in marketing, sales and operations, merchandising, e-Commerce and finance, Toonz opened its first store in Total Mall in Bangalore in 2010.
Toonz stores with 1,200-2,000 sq feet space, caters to all the needs of a child from clothes to crayons, prams to puzzles, walkers to rockers, blocks to board games, rattles to remotes cars and diapers to dolls.
According to Venkta, Toonz fulfills all requirements for a customer from being a Fashion destination to Toy store or be it shopping your stationary for your new session at school.
In 2012, Toonz introduced two new brands 'Wowmom', a brand for infants and toddlers offering pure, chemical free clothing, accessories and nursery products for children upto 3 years and 'Superyoung', a fashion brand for the children.
