
Archies plans global expansion, focus on children's category
Gifting brand Archies plans strategic international expansion and a renewed focus on the children's category as the business aims to enter a new phase of growth. The business has recently launched operations in the UAE and plans to expand across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman by August this year.
Keen to leverage nostalgia among the Indian diaspora abroad, Archies plans to reach shoppers in new global markets, India Retailing reported. The brand is also eyeing Southeast Asia for retail expansion, with a presence in five countries expected by October, and has signed agreements in Sri Lanka. Expansion into the US, UK, and Australia is also on the cards, supported by both online and offline retail partnerships including general trade shops, large-format retailers, and marketplaces such as Amazon.
Archies' executive director Varun Moolchandani told India Retailing that the children's segment is also a key focus area for growth. Archies will soon launch dedicated large-format kids' stores with play zones and birthday party spaces, alongside new home décor collections influenced by Korean aesthetics.
Domestically, the Delhi-based company plans to open 25 to 30 new stores this year, concentrating on North India. The business will also introduce Archie's Express stores to serve value-conscious customers with fast-moving, affordable products. With its turnover crossing the Rs 80 crore mark in the 2024 financial year and strong digital and retail momentum, Archies is positioning itself as a global player while evolving its offerings for a new generation of consumers.

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Euronews
8 hours ago
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Eco-luxury in Bali: This zero waste resort is the real deal
It was on a bus driving through the northern desert of Uzbekistan when an American woman I'd just met turned to me and said, 'Oh, you do environmental travel stories - have you been to Potato Head?' I hadn't. In fact, my first reaction was that it sounded like a venue out of Toy Story, hosted by Mr and Mrs Potato Head themselves. How wrong I was. It's actually a luxury eco resort in Indonesia and, according to her, the 'most legit sustainable hotel' she'd ever been to. 'Don't hesitate,' she said, 'just go.' With a claim as strong as this, there was no way I wasn't going to look into it. Of course, the idea of a luxury resort, with flights to reach it and spacious rooms and pools, being 'sustainable' at all might raise eyebrows. Can a destination for jet-setters ever be truly eco-conscious? Potato Head doesn't claim to have all the answers, but it is a place where you don't have to choose between doing good and feeling good. Two weeks after my chance encounter in Uzbekistan, I'm on the plane from London to Bali, with sky-high expectations. A design-led experience My eyes are drawn first to the architecture at Potato Head. I'm met at the entrance by a dramatic courtyard surrounded by lush greenery - almost like a 'tropical Barbican' (an icon of Brutalist architecture, for my non-London-based readers). The buildings containing the studios are made out of roughly two million hand-pressed terracotta bricks from nearby villages, and the floor beneath me is bright and colourful, crafted from a mixture of broken ceramics and glass from the area. From a design perspective alone, I soon realised this was unlike any hotel I had ever stayed at. Far from marble lobbies and the sanitised opulence of your usual luxury chain, Potato Head felt different. You don't necessarily notice that all the walls and materials are made from recycled materials, because it's all decorated so elegantly. 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Certain details catch your eye - like the oyster shells from the fish restaurant, which get threaded and turned into decorations, the coconut slippers in my bedroom, or the staff aprons made from worn-out bed linen. Then there are the countless objects we take for granted in hotels, soap bottles, refillable shampoo bottles, coasters and the glass and kitchenware, which are all made from collected plastic and turned into products in their waste studio. You can even sit on these creations. Led by British designer Max Lamb, a new collection of chairs called WASTED is launching in early August to the public. They were so sleek and beautiful (as though they belonged in a gallery) that I wanted to take them all home to adorn my small London flat. Sadly, they wouldn't fit in my suitcase. Pioneering zero waste in the community The waste thing is not a vanity project either. Bali's natural beauty is world-renowned, but beneath its pristine beaches lies a mounting environmental crisis. 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All the restaurants are in the process of ensuring that a quarter of their food menus produce a byproduct too, like turning breadcrumbs into soy sauce, turning the white part of watermelons into pickles or using leftover tomato skin as a powder for the chips they serve. And for the wine lovers? There was an organic wine evening hosted at Dome restaurant while I was staying there - a collaboration with Argentinian label Santa Julia. I was treated to a smooth orange wine by the exceptional in-house sommelier, Minyoung Ryu, hailing from South Korea, who taught me all about skin-contact chardonnay. Minyoung, along with many of the hotel staff I spoke with, said she was proud to be part of a movement shifting perceptions of Bali's hospitality sector. From mangroves to manta rays: Make sure to explore Bali When I could bring myself to leave the hotel's poolside, I travelled north to the rice fields and forests of Ubud, to see the monkeys and sample traditional sweet treats. 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The aim is not to be sustainable for the sake of it Before I left the UK, I asked some friends who'd been to Bali if they knew about Potato Head. Their responses were unanimous: 'The fun beach club in Seminyak?' It's well-known for its day (and night) club with poolside cocktails and stunning sunsets. But no one I asked knew about the green side of Potato Head. Why? Because the ethos of the hotel is not to reel in sustainably-minded travellers - it's to attract those after a luxurious, wellness-centred experience, with unique architecture and exceptional food. 'Our mission is to make the experience beautiful - it just so happens to be more sustainable,' Akili told me. 'We aim for progress over perfection,' he concludes. As far as I can see, they come pretty close.


Euronews
a day ago
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Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
Romania's new president nominates centre-right former mayor as PM
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