The Smiley Company to offer more products in India

After witnessing a strong response from India to its Facebook page, The Smiley Company

could not ignore the lucrative market. The company that began retailing its product range mainly T-shirts at the Lifestyle stores is now exploring franchise opportunities.

The company’s CEO, Nicolas Loufrani is scouting for a local franchise partner to establish its presence firmly in India. The plan is to not only expand its product range through multi-brand stores such as Lifestyle, but also to set up exclusive Smiley World stores which would have the complete merchandise of The Smiley Company like apparel, sportswear, shoes, bags, jewellery, school merchandise, accessories and even Smiley branded chocolates and confectionery.

While having its own exclusive stores is a recent phenomenon for the company with its first exclusive store in London opening only last year, almost 40 years after the business was set up. However, now it is looking at the exclusive store route in most of the new markets it plans to enter. For instance, it recently signed a 150 store deal over the next three years in China.