It's store time for Disney in India

The Walt Disney Co has streamlined its strategies to soon come up with stores in the country. Disney, the world's largest entertainment company, plans to operate stores on a licensing and franchisee basis with DLF Brands, reported news daily. Through its stores, the entertainment mogul aims to tap the growing demand for branded kids clothing and accessories. While the company intends to open a couple of large format flagship stores spawning across 10,000 sq ft, most outlets in India will have average 1,000 sq ft of space focusing primarily on apparel and toys. It is said that Disney will replicate global designs originally developed by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs for its bigger stores. Timmy Sarna, the CEO of DLF Brands has revealed that the brand already had a licensing deal with Walt Disney to sell children's clothing in India through retail formats that were part of the group such as Mothercare. Initially DLF Brands is said to open around 50 Disney stores in the first phase and is already scouting for locations, however speculations of turning the licensee agreement into a joint venture with DLF cannot be denied. Disney is the largest retail character licensor with $45 billion in retail sales throughout the globe, while it sells 3,000 SKUs of popular characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in India both online and offline.