The store and is spread over an area of 3200 sq ft. This Green Mom & Me store uses eco-friendly, recycled and reused construction material. Its environment friendly features the maximum use of natural elements in the store such as low energy consumption lighting, lead free paints & tiles, doors reconditioned from the existing buildings etc. The kids play area too has natural toxic free Marmoleum to ensure a safe environment.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Mahindra Retail Pvt. Ltd. said, “I am delighted to launch the 25th Mahindra Retail green store in Bangalore, which reinforces our commitment to sustainability and a greener environment.

As an environmentally conscious organization, Mahindra Retail seeks to drive positive change and make a difference in the life of its customers. The 25th Mom & Me store is therefore a landmark for us on two counts – reaching this mark within a short span of time and launching a unique store for our customers to ensure a healthy shopping experience.”

Unique facets of the Green Mahindra Retail store

Lead free tiles have been used for flooring in all areas except the kids play area flooring where natural toxic free marmoleum tiles have been used. Lead free paints have been used in the store and all graphics have been printed with 100 % eco-friendly eco solvent HP links.

Eco Friendly Aerocon instawall has been used for construction of walls, the wall finishing is done using Gyproc eco friendly plaster. The false ceiling uses Gyproc eco friendly boards, wall partitions are done using green ply eco friendly range ply and laminate while focal walls use natural bamboo panels. There is an attempt to use natural light to the extent possible.

The retail area therefore has light slits cut across the store, which brings in natural lighting upto 15% while the back stock room uses transparent roofing to allow 100% light during the day. A combination of eco-friendly LEDs and CDMT lighting has been used throughout the store. 60% of the doors are reconditioned and reused from the existing buildings .

In addition to construction, the green theme has been extended into the interior deisgn with subtle landscaping at lobbies and negative spaces. The cash counter houses an aquarium in the front to engage kids . Store background music is accompanied by the soothing sound of water flowing from a weeping wall made of natural stone with a recycling water system.

The store’s exterior is landscaped with natural grass and plants and reused granite slabs from the building’s existing pavement. To complement the interior theme store fixtures are clad with natural veneer, the shopping baskets made of natural cane and paper shopping bags for customers to carry back their purchases in . Unique and refereshing fragrance in the store is rendered with natural flower pot pourri dispensers to complete the unique shopping experience in the store

About Mom & Me Stores

Mom & Me stores from Mahindra Retail have been built around the unique needs of mothers to be, young mothers, infants and children up to the age of nine. Mom & Me has scoured the world’s best brands in these categories and more and has selected a range of the best products to stock in their stores giving Indian mothers choice that they have not enjoyed hitherto.

Where international brands have found to be lacking, Mom & Me has developed private labels in order to bring products like ethnic fashion for women, infant apparel, and traditional Indian toys to their stores for the benefit of the Indian consumer. Mom & Me stores are organised keeping in mind the customers’ convenience in selecting women’s western maternity fashion, women’s ethnic fashion, mother wellness, baby wellness, toys, kids fashion, kids footwear, travel products, home safety products and furnishing products

Mom & Me stores have in-house activities for parents & children in the form of Parenting Forums & Kids Activity sessions. Parenting Forums are interactive sessions with experts in various fields providing answers to various parenting and pregnancy queries. The kids’ sessions are already extremely popular amongst the customers that involve engaging the children in activities such as Pottery, Arts & Crafts, Storytelling and Dance.

Supermoms at Mom & Me Stores

The store staff has been trained to deliver a comfortable, informed and enjoyable shopping experience to the customers. The stores are staffed with “supermoms” – mothers who can advise the customers about the right products to select as well as guide them with usage instructions.

This provides a personal advisory service that customers cannot find elsewhere. The stores are well equipped with facilities such as a separate play area for kids, a private feeding room, nappy change facility, extra-wide aisles, seating area for customers to relax and reading space stocked with pregnancy & parenting related books.

Mom & Me Store locations

Mom & Me now has stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad, Ludhiana, Bangalore, Vadodara, Vizag, Mangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Indore Hyderabad, Aurangabad and Noida.

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The two companies are close to signing a joint-venture agreement to open Toys“R”Us stores in India, a senior official close to the development said. “Reliance is still working on the nitty-gritty of the joint venture and is expected to close it in the next few months,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

A Reliance Retail spokesperson refused to comment: “As a policy, we do not comment on speculation.” The New Jersey-headquartered Toys“R”Us runs more than 1,500 toy supermarkets across 34 countries and has annual revenues in excess of $13 billion. It has the world’s largest toy store at New York City’s Times Square. It also owns brands such as Babies“R”Us, FAO Schwarz and KB Toys. Reliance Retail had in April opened the first outlet of Hamleys, the iconic 250-year-old British toy retailer, in Mumbai.

Analysts say the tieup with Toys“R”Us will not impact Reliance Retail’s plans for Hamleys as the US brand is positioned lower than the British toymaker. “Toys“R”Us is a much more scalable model, while Hamleys is more of an experience-based retailing form,” said Harminder Sahni, managing director of Wazir Advisors. “These formats would complement each other and help Reliance straddle different price points,” he added.

Interestingly, Reliance were in talks with Toys “R” Us even three years back, but later decided to partner Hamleys to enter toy retailing. But now the company is clearly toying with the idea of introducing more international brands to the Rs 6,000-crore Indian toy market, where unorganized players hold more than 60% share. “They earlier wanted to open mid-priced toy retail stores on their own, but now they seem to have found a strategic partner,” said the official who revealed the development to ET.

Other global toymakers such as Simba Toys and Ty Inc too have ambitious growth plans for India as a booming economy and strong consumer sentiment push demand for toys, children’s apparel and everything else. Reliance Retail is expected to bring a number of international brands across consumer product segment into the country as it looks to take full advantage of the boom in consumer demand. The company, which had paused its expansion plans during consumer slowdown two years back, is looking to scale up once again.

At Reliance Industries’ 36th annual general meeting in June, company chairman Mukesh Ambani had indicated that in the next five years, the group could grow its retail business ten-fold, becoming a significant value creator for Reliance in the coming years. Reliance Retail had revenues in excess of Rs 4,500 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2010. It operates nearly 1,150 stores in 86 cities across 14 states.

It already has joint ventures with UK’s apparel retailer Marks & Spencer, Dutch optical firm Pearle Europe, US stationery chain Office Depot, Italian men’swear brand Ermenegildo Zegna Group and US-based Apple Inc, among others. There will be more.

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The Transformers line, which spawned the eponymous movie blockbusters, is one of Hasbro’s biggest sellers. The second-largest US toymaker has moved away from traditional toys to pursue an entertainment-related strategy. This has paid off during the recession when other toymakers, such as Mattel, suffered lower profits.

Photograph: PR

Hasbro’s chief executive, Brian Goldner, said: “Transformers continue to do exceedingly well and we expect Transformers to sell well through this year.” In 2007, the toys generated sales of $484m (£297m).

Goldner said he expected Transformers to continue to be a big contributor next year. Toys based on the third movie in the Transformers series are due to hit the shelves next July.

GI Joe, My Little Pony and Star Wars toys are benefiting from related TV programmes, such as the Star Wars animated Clone Wars series.

Hasbro reported an 8.8% rise in profits to $150.4m, or 99 cents a share, in the three months to 27 September. The results beat Wall Street expectations of 93 cents a share.

However, the company’s joint venture with Discovery Communications dented earnings per share by 3 cents.

Revenues fell by 2% to $1.28bn from $1.3bn a year ago.

Hasbro said its sales performance in North America, and internationally, reflected stronger sales of toys for boys, but this was offset by weaker sales of girls’ and pre-school toys, and games and puzzles.

The company’s revenues from entertainment and licensing more than doubled to $41.5m due to Transformers and GI Joe. The company has made Transformers models – typically an object such as a car which can be turned into a robot – since the 1980s. The popularity of the franchise has been boosted by the 2007 Transformers movie, and this year’s sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Goldner is confident of achieving higher revenues this year compared to last if consumer trends continue to “improve in line with recent fourth-quarter trends”.

Last week, the country’s biggest toymaker, Mattel, reported a 3.5% fall in profits, with sales down 8%. Mattel makes Hot Wheels and American Girl dolls.

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