Asia's Richest Man, Billionaire Ambani Plans Expansion of Hamleys Toy Stores - News

13/April/2021

261-Year-old British Hamleys toy-store chain is planning expansion across Asia and Europe under Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's ownership — Bloomberg News Report

Ambani, 63, bought Hamleys in 2019 to strengthen his retail footprint as part of the ongoing transformation of his oil-and-chemicals conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. into a consumer and technology behemoth.

The deep pockets of Asia’s richest man and India’s demographics could help breathe new life into Hamleys, whose share of global toy sales was estimated at 0.6% last year by Euromonitor International, and see it avert the pitfalls faced by rivals such as Toys “R” Us Inc.

Founded by William Hamley in 1760, Hamleys has seen its share of troubles. Ownership of the London-based chain has changed at least three times in the past decade alone -- from an Icelandic bank to a French group and then to a Chinese fashion retailer.

Two years ago, Ambani snapped it up for about $89 million in cash. Hamleys’ most recent books for 2019 show a loss of almost 9 million pounds ($12.4 million) on revenue of about 48 million pounds... bloomberg.com

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