A toy story: how working with international toy brands led two engineers to start their own manufacturing company

According to a report by Invest India, the Indian toy market, which is currently pegged at $1.5 billion, has the potential to double up and reach between $2-$3 billion by 2024. Moreover, India’s market share in the global market is only 0.5 percent, indicating a massive opportunity to leverage.

Against this backdrop, two friends Aadesh Rohilla and Rohit Sharma decided to venture into this market. Aadesh and Rohit were friends since their days at the YMCA Institute of Engineering. Thereafter, they went separate ways but came together in 2010 to explore entrepreneurial options. “We both always wanted to do something of our own.”

Aadesh says that while working with the Danish company Gosh Cosmetics, and handling its Indian operations, he met its distributor who was also dealing in the toy segment. When he spoke to this distributor about the toy market, he felt there was massive potential.

“There was a gap in the market as it was filled with unorganised players and in dire need of new-age companies.”

Aadesh quit his job in 2010 and decided to take distributorship of toy brands in early 2011 under Strings Marketing Private Limited. He was joined by Rohit the same year. The first company which came on board was New Jersey-based Alex Toys.

After 2014, Aadesh says they were able to add other prominent toy players like Melissa and Doug, Townley Girl, Buzz Bee, and more, supplying their goods to pan India including to Hamleys. However, while business was scaling up, the government was tightening the noose around imports.

Over the years, GST, increased custom duties, mandating sample testing of toy consignments to filter out the import of cheap toys, and other measures have been undertaken by the government to reduce import dependence.

Feeling the pinch of these developments and realising the potential impact of the measures on their business, Aadesh and Rohit decided to start their own toy manufacturing and selling company, Mirada Creatives, in 2018. Both the co-founders invested Rs 50 lakh each to kickstart the initial operations of the business.

Mirada in Spanish means ‘look’.

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Going all-out

Aadesh says that having a background in the toy industry before getting into manufacturing was a “big advantage.” “We understood customer perception, the price points at which the market works, and the gaps in the market.” Aadesh also highlights that working with the likes of Alex Toys and Melissa and Doug gave them a global outlook.

Mirada Toys started manufacturing craft toys for girls in its unit in Noida, and gradually expanded to other categories including toys for boys, stationery, soft toys and puzzles.

The craft and cosmetic toys were making a mark in the market, says Aadesh adding that their DIY range of make-up, nail art, and more continue to be the highest-selling products.

Within the soft toy range, the co-founder highlights that while unicorns have found a large market, traditional favourites like teddy bears failed to set the cash registers ringing.

“We realised that the market is full of teddy bears and that is why we couldn’t scale up.” he further added that to make the teddy bears stand out in the market, they worked on making their eyes a little shiny which immediately caught attention.

“One feedback that we have got from the market is that the glow-in-the-dark categories do very well.”

Today, Mirada also offers space, jungle, fairy, unicorn-themed puzzles and based on the market feedback, plans to convert some of these into glow-in-the-dark categories.

Although Mirada is a relatively new company at just over three years, it is gradually carving a niche in the industry. The company which began with just the two co-founders today employs 300 people, has a network of 50 distributors and is present in 2,500 outlets. Its biggest market is Maharashtra followed by Delhi. The products are also present in Chennai, Bangalore and in Tier II cities such as Rudrapar, Guwahati, and Lucknow. In addition, Mirada is also an OEM for nine Indian and international toy brands.

Currently, the Noida-based company is an offline-heavy brand but going forward, the co-founders are planning to launch its own website. Mirada is also listed on Amazon.

According to the founders, Mirada clocked Rs 4.27 crore in FY21 and has clocked Rs 12.8 crore so far this fiscal year (till December 2021).

The pandemic story

The pandemic evidently left a huge dent in all quarters of the world, especially so the manufacturing sector. Talking about its impact on the company, Aadesh says Mirada was completely shut between April and June 2020. Apart from the disruption in operations and supply chains, the co-founders were finding it difficult to hire new employees during the period. “There was a lot of job uncertainty because of the pandemic. And many individuals were not ready to leave their existing jobs.” However, the brand’s DIY range became its saviour. “Since most of the kids were sitting at home, they wanted to do something fun and trendy,” he says.

The pandemic, which further reduced the import of toys, compelled the company to dig deeper into the industry. Today, the Basic Custom Duty (BCD) on toys is around 60 percent. Since the import has reduced considerably, Aadesh says, “Whatever we are manufacturing is working well for us.”

This is true not just for Mirada but also for many other small businesses in India.

In his monthly address in August 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged domestic players to take centre stage as India has the potential to become a global toy production hub. He also highlighted the role of innovation in boosting and leveraging export opportunities.

Although India houses numerous toy brands like Ankit Toys, Toonz, Zephyr, and more, Aadesh says it is imperative for new players to step in to make this sector more formal and achieve global footprint. Mirada is also in talks to venture into the international market, starting with the Middle East region.

According to Aadesh, in the short term, the team plan to increase their manufacturing by three times. They are in the process of finalising a unit in Greater Noida to start manufacturing as soon as possible. In the long haul, the co-founders want to make Mirada a notable toy brand both in the Indian and the global markets.