U.K. toystore Hamleys, whose London store is one of the world’s largest shops, will open its first Russian outlet in Moscow in May, the company said on Monday.
The first Hamleys brand store in Russia will be opened in the city’s Evropeisky shopping center and will be about 1,700 square meters.
The license for the brand use in Russia was given to the Ideas4retail firm, owned by businessmen Alexander Mamut, co-owner of Russia’s largest mobile phone retailer Evroset, and Yevgeny Butman, former co-owner of the re:Store Retail Group.
The Russian firm plans to open six Hamleys stores in Moscow and other major Russian cities in the next three years.
The Russian toy market grew 17 percent in 2011 to nearly $3.3 billion, according to Russia’s National Toy Association,.
Hamleys is named after William Hamley, who founded a toy shop called “Noah’s Ark” in London in 1760. Other major stores worldwide include Amman, Chennai, Dublin, Dubai, Glasgow, Mumbai and Riyadh.