Smiley Co aims to increase India revenue four times in three years

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 20, 2018

​London-based lifestyle brand Smiley Co. will be greatly expanding its India presence over the coming years and will roll out new clothing tie ups in the coming months.

Smiley Co. is a brand based around the smiley face logo that Franklin Loufrani trademarked in 1872. The brand now produces a wide range of products including clothing, stationary, toys, and food products which will become increasingly available in India soon and the brand aims to increase its revenue in the country four fold over the next three years.

Smiley Co. is currently managed by Nicolas Loufrani, who joined the brand in 1996 and is the son of the brand's founder and current president Frankin Loufrani. The CEO spoke at the Indian Fashion Forum in the Mumbai last week, taking the opportunity to promote business partnerships for the brand. Speaking about his aims for the brand at the forum, Loufrani said: “We want to spread happiness. We see smiley as a little positive virus that’s here to remind people to be positive and smile.”

Smiley Co. has already secured a licencing deal for India with the clothing retailer Lifestyle as well as the gift store Archies. The brand has also partnered with Dream Theatre for India licencing. According to Loufrani, the coming months will see many new products with the trademarked logo on hit Indian stores including clothes, food, stationary, school bags, and toys.

Dream Theatre’s CEO, Jiggy George, spoke to Livemint about the business’ plans for India and said: “In the next three years, we are targeting Rs150 crore [around 23 million US dollars] at retail, across categories.” The Smiley CO. business is currently valued at between five and six million dollars (approximately 37 crore rupees).