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

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

. Apart from its own brands, 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 conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, Warner Bros.,

Takara Tomy is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Tak ...

, and

Ravensburger Ravensburger AG is a German game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market. History The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He bega ...

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 is a southern suburb of Chennai, India. Ranipet (lit. Queen's colony) is an industrial hub of Southern Chennai city in southern India. It is located about from the Chennai city center. It is a major industrial town located on NH 4 C ...

, near Chennai, and in

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to th ...

. 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 toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

and FisherPrice. In 2014, Funskool surpassed Mattel to become the market leader in the mid to premium range of the Indian toy market. Funskool's licence to manufacture

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlockin ...

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 ''aulón'') is a common name for any of a group of small to very large marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae. Other common names are ear shells, sea ears, and, rarely, muttonfish or mu ...

from

Asmodee Asmodee is a French publisher of board games, card games and role-playing games (RPGs). Founded in 1995 to develop their own games and to publish and distribute for other smaller game developers, they have since acquired numerous other board game ...

. 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, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Europe, the

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf ( ar, مجلس التعاون لدول العربية الخليج ), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ar, مجلس التعاون الخليجي), is a regional, inter ...

countries,

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives,, ) and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the A ...

, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the United States.

Stores

Funskool opened a

Lego store Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aroun ...

in Chennai in 2013. Following the success of the venture, the company opened the first Funskool store in Coimbatore 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 Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

. As of February 2021, there are 18 Funskool stores nationwide. 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