TOY INDUSTRY

Chennaibest.com speaks to David Daniel Selvaraj, Deputy Marketing Manager, Funskool (India) Limited about the Toy Industry.

How did MRF get into the Toy industry?

In 1987, Hasbro, the world's largest Toy company, were looking for partners to come into India. They were impressed by our facilities and that's how this joint venture started, with MRF holding 60% ownership and Aspro holding the rest

The total market in India will be about Rs 250 crore, of which Rs 25 crore is in Chennai. 70% of the market is in the unorganised sector. Compared to European and American markets, our volumes are very low, that's because, toy buying is a city phenomena.

Mattel and Lego are the other players. Funskool has about 10% of the total market share.

About 25% for the organised sector; may be more for the rural sector.

There is not much rural penetration. Toys are still a metro phenomena. The reason being, western concepts in content and upmarket positioning.

Funskool is actively planning to bring out indianised toys. In the unorganised sector, there are some players who copy the western concepts and others make toys which have local or traditional content and only regional relevance. For example, the Tanjore dolls. One of the reasons we are unable to indianise is the lack of a common content, which will be relevant to the whole of India. We have only been able to indianise games, so far, but not toys.

The total export market will be about Rs 18 or 19 crore. The export volumes are low because, the quality norms are very strict abroad. You have to conform to the EN 71 norms, which are the European standards for toys. The toys have to be non-toxic and safe to sell abroad.

Dumping has affected the small scale sector more than the organised sector. We are not against importing toys, but we are against sub-standard stuff coming in. China is selling its export rejects in the Indian market for rock-bottom prices, which is killing the unorganised sector. Our demand from the Government is to enforce strict quality norms for imported toys. They should not allow bad quality stuff to come in.

We have a mix of both fun toys and educational tools. There is more demand for fun toys. Its usually the parents who prefer to buy educational toys for their children. But children now-a-days make their own buying decisions. And usually they go in for fun toys. Its found that children above three years decide on their own.

As such toy buying is very less in Chennai. And Chennai is certainly price-sensitive when compared to Mumbai or Delhi.

Its a good sign for us. Firstly, they are stocking only good quality toys. Secondly, the customer selects the toy in these outlets, whereas in small shops the shopkeeper is the one who chooses for you. It all depends on his whims and fancies. Finally, its very helpful in demand assessment. Its easier to find out which are the toys in demand as everything is properly recorded. In the US and UK, they even publish the Top 10 selling toys, every month. We still have a long way to go before that happens here. Still the possibilities are there.

Because of retailing, the space you get to display is more. There is a chance to display the entire range and we can display it category-wise, that is fun toys separately and games separately.

Packaging is extremely important in this industry. It has to catch the child's attention. And usually toys are an impulse buy. Packaging helps a lot, in that sense.

Funskool is working towards it. We are drafting the quality norms. Once the Government agrees upon it, the toys will come up with the standard ISI mark.

Regulations are very important. We have to bring in stringent regulations even for imports. Quality norms have to be strictly enforced, as it involves children. The toys have to be non-toxic, without sharp edges and should not have any small parts which can come loose. Imports are good for the industry, as it will force even the small players to upgrade their quality.

The future for the toy industry is very good, as it lies in making toys for the masses. We have to indianise our toys, to have wider appeal. Toys that appeal not only to the English speaking, city-bred children. Only then the market will expand and develop.

|