FirstCry expands its presence acquires BabyOye

One of the largest Online baby products retailer FirstCry has agreed to acquire Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd’s baby-care business BabyOye in a cash-and-stock deal that will help it consolidate its presence in the growing segment through an omni-channel strategy.

The deal is worth Rs 362.1 crore ($54.3 million). The move will help FirstCry expand its offline presence. BabyOye has about 120 physical stores, including some franchisee outlets, while FirstCry has almost 180 stores & Both companies have e-commerce.  As per the deal, Mahindra will operate all company-owned stores under a master franchise agreement with FirstCry, the companies said.

FirstCry was founded by serial entrepreneur Supam Maheshwari, in a statement  Mr.Maheshwari said the deal with the Mahindra Group will bring in synergies that will help FirstCry expand and achieve its profitability goal much faster.

Mahindra Group had acquired BabyOye in February last year. Later that year, Mahindra renamed its offline babycare store chain ‘Mom n Me’ as ‘BabyOye by Mahindra.’ This was the first M&A deal by an Indian business group in the e-commerce segment, which had until then seen mergers mainly among companies backed by common venture capital firms.

 FirstCry has emerged as a strong player in the segment over the years.  FirstCry has branded franchisee stores across 85 cities, besides its e-commerce site. In addition, it also has distribution partnerships with over 6,000 hospitals across the country. It runs its private label under the BabyHug brand.

In an omni-channel model, companies can create a large online brand supported by a large offline business and then you can integrate, leverage your inventory, own product brand or private label and leverage your customer behavior and loyalty to help build a more pervasive retail brand.”