NEW DELHI: Reliance Brands will take Hamleys toy stores to the US and Canada to capitalise on the vacuum created by liquidation of one the world’s largest toy store chain Toys R Us.

After taking over the British-origin toy store chain from Chinese fashion conglomerate C Banner International for around Rs 620 crore, the company has opened the 100th Hamleys store in the country in Gurugram. Hamleys, which forayed into India in 2010, had 50 stores till early last year.

“By March 2020, we will open 150 stores. The Indian market has the potential to hold 500 Hamleys stores. The only challenge is mall infrastructure,” president and CEO of Reliance Brands, Darshan Mehta, told TOI. The move comes against the backdrop of expansion of other toy store chains remaining slow or stagnant. Reliance Brands is in talks with several of the world’s largest toymakers to double the Hamleys’ business in India in two years.

“What worked for us is tweaking the mix of products at our stores according to their locations,” said Mehta. “For instance, in our store in Dwarka in the capital, the average unit value of toys is around Rs 650, while in Khan Market, a tonier neigbourhood, we have kept the average unit price at Rs 1,400.”

The company changed the retail model for Hamleys too. In comparison to running only large stores measuring around 10,000 square feet earlier, it currently operates several formats, including flagship stores, regular, express and airport stores. The size of the stores at airports is around 500 square feet. Hamleys operates a little less than 100 stores globally, excluding the ones it runs in India.