AgTalk | Toy industry yet to develop in India: Simba toys' Ben Nabert

Founded in 1982 by Fritz  and Michael Seiber the company acquired French rival Smoby, Europe's second-largest toy maker, out of receivership in 2008. Their core values responsibility, reliability, innovation, quality and service ensured that the small family business became what it is today the Simba Dickie Group. The company's 3,000-item range of toys includes brands Simba (stuffed animals), Dickie (remote-controlled cars), Schuco (die-cast collectible cars), Eichhorn (wooden trains and toys), and Noris Spiele (games). Simba has about 50 subsidiaries in Asia, Australia, and Europe; about half its sales come from outside Germany.

One of the key advantages that Simba Toys offers to both trade partners and consumers is the consistent division of its extensive product range into clearly positioned product lines. For example, the little ones can discover the world with Simba Baby and Simba dolls making every little girls' dreams come true. Their  stuffed animals, remote controlled cars, dolls, ride-on cars, and other fun things too are popular. Simba Art & Fun brings creative development into play. Simba uses the latest manufacturing techniques in their factories both in and beyond Germany. This, along with innovative design, guarantees that their toy range is second to none for durability and safety.

Ben Nabert while studying Law at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen, Germany made his first contact with the toy industry. A student assistant job turned into a partnership while selling high quality toys for small children. With this experience he decided to build up his own enterprise by setting up a company for the distribution of high quality toys in the Middle East, thus facilitating not only previous experience in the toy industry but also sponsorship contacts of the time spent in motorsports. SIMBA TOYS history goes back to the year 2002 when  Nabert came to the Middle East with nothing on his mind but bringing valuable, educational and safe toys to the region. 

He founded “Happy Learning Middle East” and started therewith a venture the results of which can be seen in today’s Middle East toy giant SIMBA TOYS Middle East.  The company carries well over 4.000 SKU’s which all are produced under the supervision and under the safety-standards of german-based SIMBA-DICKIE-GROUP.  It offers an incredible variety of products which covers the demands and needs of children of all ages. Simba Toys Middle East has now forayed into the Indian market.

Adgully caught up with Ben Nabert, Chief Executive Officer India, Middle East and North Africa for Simba to understand the strategies and initiatives of the company.

Adgully (AG): Could you give us an understanding of Simba’s global footprint & presence across countries, size & turnover?

Ben Nabert (BN): Firstly, we are a Germany based company with more than 20 subsidiaries across the world; with around 800 millions turnover which makes us one of the largest toy suppliers of the world. Our focus is to make children happy, that also defines our philosophy which is - We love to make toys. Russia, South America have been really good markets for us internationally.  

AG: How do you see the Indian toy market growing over the foreseeable future?

BN: Toy industry is enormous in India with a market size of approximately 10,000 crores however there is a lack of organized market set up.  After understanding the market in last three years we finally stepped into the market with global franchise retail outlets. I see India as a great market in every sense. Especially in the toy industry I see a lot of potential in this market. 

AG: This is your first store in  Mumbai. Please share with us your reason to enter this market and why now and not earlier? 

BN: Well, we already had four stores operating in the country and we entered the Indian market three years ago. We wanted to first understand the Indian market and their needs. This was the perfect time to enter Mumbai, a key market place, in terms of expanding our business.

AG:   What are your plans in this context – in terms of retail outlets across cities and setting up manufacturing operations?

BN: Well, we have planned a lot to expand here. We have a target to open another 15 outlets in India in next six months.  But surely there is more to come. In the first phase we are setting up our outlets in metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore but our aim is to enter the tier I and II cities or rather the next metros of the country as there lays the real potential for our product.  

Yes, in terms of franchising etc we have shared talks with some companies and have identified the dealers. We do not have certain key markets in our strategy but we surely want to concentrate on Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. We actually want to be strong all over India.

AG: What will your marketing, pricing and promotional strategy be?

BN: We want everyone to have Simba toys. So keeping that in mind we have placed our toys ranging from Rs 99 to 10,000. So we do not really target certain classes but we have placed our products considering all sorts of people. We are already marketing through print but a significant marketing effort is being aligned to support the Simba stores with a good mix of ATL/BTL campaigns, with local, regional, and national strategic tie-ups. We are on the verge of closing deals with many TV companies for campaigns.  

AG: Competition is rampant in the toy industry; all the big players are present in India, the Chinese toys and the unorganized sector too. What will be your strategy to face competition? What are the unique strengths that you are banking upon to counter competition? 

BN: We are all set to face that. Actually we don’t really have competition since Simba is known for its quality products and services. The objective behind launching Simba stores here is to take good quality products closer to the consumers of India. In terms of unique strengths, quality stays at the top with proper brand awareness among the consumers. Also we believe that every country/segment has its own needs so we offer accordingly keeping in mind the fact that what works internationally might not work in other countries as well and vice-versa. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]