The ownership of Hamley’s, everyone’s favourite toy store (and my own personal hell – don’t blow those bubbles in my direction!) is changing hands.
Yuan Yafei, the Chinese billionaire who bought House of Fraser last year, is understood to be in buy-out talks with the owners of the 255 year old toy store according to The Sunday Times.
Do you know who else bought House of Fraser and Hamleys? Iceland’s very own viking raider Baugur Group. Raise your hand if you know how that one ended.
Baugur bought Hamley’s in 2003, which meant that for the first time in the store’s history it fell into foreign ownership. It was part of the company’s shopping binge on the British high street which included splurging on Iceland (the store), Oasis, Karen Millen, Goldsmiths, Coast, Whistles and of course House of Fraser, which it bought in 2006.
Then came 2008. Iceland’s economic wings of wax melted and Baugur, along with most of the Icelandic economy, drowned in the stormy sea of the economic meltdown. In 2012 Hamley’s was acquired by its current owner, the French Groupe Ludendo, although it still has an Icelandic CEO, Guðjón Reynisson.
Which makes you wonder what Yuan Yafei’s next target will be. If he’s into frozen food, maybe he should check out Iceland.