Portuguese Green Swan snaps up Maxi Toys

Portuguese investment fund Green Swan has purchased toy store chain Maxi Toys.

The stores, which had belonged to Blokker, are located in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland and Italy. The same fund had already bought the Spanish and Portuguese assets of Toys “R” Us in August last year.

Maxi Toys is a large toy retailer in Europe, part of Dutch group Blokker Holding. It has 280 shops all over Europe and in 2014 penetrated the Romanian market.

Green Swan has bought all of Maxi Toy’s activities, shops and logistics for an undisclosed fee. The capital fund has a strategic focus on the toy sector.

The investment group aims to continue the expansion of Maxi Toys and invest substantially in innovation and personalised shopping.

“The acquisition of Green Swan will enable Maxi Toys to progress further along our omnichannel growth path in the field of marketing, management and customer experience. Within the new group, Maxi Toys will have the opportunity to be further rolled out as an international brand” says CEO Alain Hellebaut.

The toy chain employees 1,100 employees and the retail toy sector has been facing hard times and stiff competition from online platforms. Last year saw the bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us and a rescue plan for French toy chain La Grande Récré.