THE WORLD OF FUNSKOOL

Funskool India Limited, India's leading toy manufacturer has over the last 13 years provided a platform to many children in India to unleash their creativity and develop their skills.  With a range of 10 product line and over 300 products, Funskool has helped Indian parents provide their children with toys that not only help them have fun, but also learn and develop creative skills. 

This Chennai-based company is a joint venture between two leaders in their own field - MRF, the leading tyre company in India and Hasbro Inc., the world's leading toy company. Funskool started its commercial operations in 1988, just a year after being established. It has a state of the art manufacturing facility at Goa spread over an area of more than 70,000 sq ft in addition to the 50,000 sq ft facility at Ranipet.

A pioneer of sorts as far as the concept of quality and safe toys in India goes, Funskool has played an important role in raising the standard of toy quality in the Indian market.  The major strength of Funskool has been its ability to continuously innovate and make quality toys.  The company's mission is to influence parents to spend on toys that enable every Indian child to grow with toys that contribute to their mental development.

Funskool's range of board games has catalysed the phenomenal growth of this segment in the Indian toy market. Games like Scotland Yard, Battleship, The Game of Life, The Memory Game and Go To the Head of the Class have made Funskool the undisputed market leader in the board games segment.  Funskool has also been bringing out creative toys on a regular basis over the years and has even been exporting some of the toys made here to European countries. A couple of years ago, realising that a majority of its toys catered to the needs of boys and that there was not much of choice when it came to toys for girl children, Funskool brought in a whole new range of creative toys especially for girls. Knitting, Jewellery making, Beach Studio and Fantastic Flowers were part of this range to cater to the needs of the girl child. The latest to the Funskool range of creative toys is The Pottery Wheel, that is aimed at both boys and girls. It comes with a pack of clay using which children can shape small pots and vessels on a motorised wheel.

D D Selvaraj, Marketing Manager, Funskool says "The most popular products are the Play Doh, GI Joe and the Batman collection.  Games, which generally have a much more longer product lifecycle, have been the most popular of all the lines.  Among them are Scotland Yard, Game of Life and Monopoly.  In fact it has been nearly 12 years since we brought Scotland Yard to India and it is still popular. The products are mainly marketed through live demonstrations at leading retailers and educational institutions, apart from the television ads."

The entire product range of Funskool has been displayed at MRF's Product O Drome, a unique concept showcasing the entire range of the MRF Group's products. The whole display is a computerised multimedia show, which takes visitors right through the beginning to the growth and development of Funskool.

Funskool tops not only on the creativity and fun part, but also on the logistics part -a key factor that has helped it corner 10% of the market share. It has a distribution network of four regional offices in the four metros and 25 Clearing and Forwarding agents.  Funskool has a turnover of more than Rs 30 crore and has recorded a growth of 20% over last year.

Address:  Funskool India Limited, Tarapore Towers, 6th Floor, Anna Salai, Chennai - 600 002.
Phone: 852 0024
Fax: 842 0449
E-mail: selvaraj@funskool.co.in

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