Funskool (India) Ltd. is an Indian toy manufacturing company, founded in 1987 with headquarters in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. Apart from its own brands and its American counterpart Playskool, the company also manufactures and distributes products in the Indian market under license from foreign toy brands including

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Takara Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

, and Ravensburger. Initially a joint-venture between Hasbro and MRF, the former backed out of the venture in 2014, becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of MRF in the process.

History

Funskool was established in 1987 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

by MRF Ltd. and American toy manufacturer Hasbro, Inc. The company began commercial operations the following year. Funskool manufactures all its products (including licensed products) at manufacturing facilities in

Ranipet Ranipet (lit. Queen's colony) is an industrial town and the administrative headquarters of Ranipet district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the Northern banks of the Palar River. It is a Tri-City with the adjacent municipali ...

and in Goa. Funskool opened its third manufacturing at Ranipet on 20 March 2019, which is dedicated to handling exports. The company's main competitors in the Indian market are

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

and

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price, Inc. is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. It was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression ...

. In 2014, Funskool surpassed Mattel to become the market leader in the mid to premium range of the Indian toy market. That same year, Hasbro sold its stake in Funskool to MRF as the company opened a regional division in India. Funskool's licence to manufacture

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

products was discontinued in 2019. In June 2022, the company acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute the board game

Abalone Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...

from Asmodee. In July 2022, Funskool acquired the licence to manufacture action figures based on characters from Green Gold Animations' '' Chhota Bheem'' series. Funskool products are currently exported to Africa,

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Europe, the

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...

countries,

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

, Mongolia, Nepal, Oceania, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, and the United States.

Stores

Funskool opened a Lego store in Chennai in 2013. Following the success of the venture, the company opened the first Funskool store in

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

in March 2014. By September 2015, the company had opened one store each in eight cities across the country. Funskool Store Chennai Tamil Nadu India

Most Funskool stores are operated by franchisees. As of February 2021, there are 18 Funskool stores nationwide. Funskool Store in Chennai Tamil Nadu India

Funskool Store in Chennai Tamil Nadu India

References

{{reflist Toy companies of India Toy brands Indian brands Indian companies established in 1987 Game manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Chennai Toy companies established in 1987 1987 establishments in Tamil Nadu