Published On : Sun, Aug 17th, 2014

Mayor Anil Sole inaugurates first Toonz Retail Store, a one stop shop for the kids, in Nagpur

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The Store is 50th by Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd across India.


Mayor anil sole at toonz 2
Nagpur News

Mayor Anil Sole on Sunday inaugurated the 50th Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd store in Nagpur. Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd is a one stop shop for the needs and occasions of kids from 0-12 years and launched its first store in Nagpur, the Tiger Capital of India. In a move to expand its reach in Western India, the Nagpur store also marks the launch of Toonz 50 store in India. Sprawled over an area of 1500 square feet, the plush, multi-branded store is located at Mate Square, Gopal Nagar and offers exciting range of all kinds of kids’ products. It offers a distinctive retail environment for infants and children up to the age of 12.

Managing Director and CEO of Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd Sharad Venketa said that they are delighted to launch their first Toonz store in Nagpur and 50th Store across India. He added that they are targeting to reach the number to 100 stores by the end of financial year 2014-15. Toonz Store will offer customers a delightful experience and high quality customer service. Nagpur being the largest city in Central India and the Second Capital of Maharashtra is an important market for them and play an integral part in the overall growth strategy of the company in western India. Besides, this store will further help strengthen foothold in Maharashtra, said Sharad Venkata.

Head of Sales & Operations (India) Deepak Pareek in an exclusive talk with Nagpur Today said that the company is looking to start at least 25 new stores across Maharashtra. The plans include 10 stores in Mumbai, 8 stores in Pune and 3 more stores in Nagpur. Besides the Toonz Store at Mate Square, the company intends to open a store in Wardhaman Nagar and one on Wardha Road. He added that the company is looking for a growth of Rs 10 lakh sales in the city per annum.

While speaking about the Toy Market in entire India, he said that it is Rs. 25,000 crore per annum with 10-15 % annual growth. With Chinese products as they are, being lacking in durability and unreliability, people tend to be selective in choosing other branded products of their choice.

Mayor anil sole at toonz 2
A passionate dream come true, say Bhumika & Anant Varokar:

In an exclusive chat with Nagpur Today, the Proprietors of 50th Toonz Retail Store in India, Bhumika and Anant Varokar said that they planned this venture for more than a year. While elaborating about her own experience, Bhumika said working with Infocepts (an IT Company in Nagpur), she had noted that most of the new moms bought kids’ products online. She too purchased most of the products for her son Pratham online stores. She claimed that there are no shops as such in the city to cater to kids’ needs in Nagpur. This led to a brainstorming session among Bhumika, her husband the Proprietor of 50th Toonz Retail Store in India Anant Varokar, her sister Ankita and her husband and eventually resulted in opening this store that caters exclusively to the needs of kids from 0-12 years. Bhumika stated, “We already had this place which hosted an electronics store. Electronics incidentally was not my cup of tea and I was not much keen in selling electronic goods. This concept of opening a kids’ goods store came about after our brainstorming session and eventually transpired. Is not this an entrepreneur’s dream come true?”

Bhumika added that this venture was something very close to her heart. The ambience of the interior of the shop gave her the intuition. She is really passionate about this venture and the products and confident to attract customers.

Toonz Owner
However, Anant said that this was the kind of business that he was always looking for. The Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd offered the right opportunity to help him realize his dreams. Anant also opined that since most of the products are of international brands, having good quality control, in vogue at the moment in demand today in the city, his store will surely gain a lot of good customers.

Anant also claimed that business wise too, it seems to be pretty profitable. Even before the inauguration (While they were still putting up the goods on the racks), the number of foot-falls for the past 5 days are nearly 500 hundred.

Location-wise too, the store is perfect with enough space for parking. Since the store is 2500 square feet, there is enough room for customers to move around to check-out the goods. He claimed that there are more than 3000 products to choose from, which caters to kids from 0-12 years.

Toonz
Anant said that his store offers

“Prams to Puzzles, 
Walkers to Rockers, Cloths to Crayons, Blocks to Board Games, Rattles to Remote Cars and Diapers to Dolls”.

He agrees to the Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd Company’s tag line “We want to be a part of the wardrobe shelf, that is why we stack 0 to 12 years.”

Anant and Bhumika also said that there are products that are not available anywhere in Nagpur. Some of the products like Table Corners (Plastic covers that can be installed on tables’, tea-poys’, cots’ corners) which will safeguard the kids from getting injured, a safety installation on the doors that prevent the doors from getting shut injuring the kid’s hand in between, small teethers, nose-cleaners etc. A variety of electronic toys (cars) etc.

Toonz
Toonz

As told to Samuel Gunasekharan