Archies Limited is India’s original greeting-card company, the one that taught the country to say it with a card, and it has spent over four decades turning that emotional impulse into a physical retail and manufacturing business. Founded as a partnership by brothers Anil and Jagdish Moolchandani in 1979 and now a listed public company, it still leads the organised social-expressions industry with more than half the market, operating under the tagline “Your Gifting Buddy”. The recurring approach is simple: it makes the products that carry sentiment-cards, gifts, stationery-in its own factory, sells them through its own high-street stores and a widening web of online platforms, and is now using that same factory to print paper bags and books for other businesses, turning a cost centre into a second engine. # Business segments Three engines built on a single factory and a shared brand-a retail network that puts gifts and cards in malls and quick-commerce apps, a wholesale stationery line that supplies schools and offices, and a B2B print-and-pack business that makes paper bags for global retailers. ## 1. Gifting and social-expression retail: the brand’s storefront, now in your pocket in ten minutes **A curated range of sentiment-driven products-cards, soft toys, jewellery, home decor-sold through a shrinking but profitable network of own stores, franchisees, and a fast-growing set of online channels that now includes instant-delivery platforms.** - **The product range is built on adorability, not utility** - it sells greeting cards, soft home decor, perfumes, fashion jewellery, stationery, posters, toys, fashion accessories, watches, hand mugs, bags, chocolates, figurines, photo albums, baby books, gift hampers, and stuffed toys, all designed to be given as gifts rather than bought for oneself. - **Stores are being closed to protect profitability** - the company has shrunk its own-store count from a peak of 197 outlets in March 2020 to just 72 by March 2025, deliberately shutting loss-making locations while selectively opening new ones in malls and prime high-street spaces. - **Franchisees fill the map** - alongside its company-owned stores, the wider network totals 325 exclusive outlets across 15 states and 66 cities when franchise locations are included, giving the brand a national physical presence without carrying all the lease costs itself. - **Quick-commerce is the newest shop window** - the company has listed its products on Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart so that a greeting card or a soft toy can reach a customer within ten minutes, and it is in talks to add BigBasket and Flipkart’s 10-minute service to that list. - **Designs come from the world leader** - a long-term tie-up with Hallmark Cards Inc. gives Archies access to global design trends, which it supplements by tracking printing technology and gift-segment fashions through other international connections. ## 2. Stationery items: the wholesale backbone that fills school bags and office desks **A business-to-business and retail line of stationery products that runs on the same manufacturing and distribution infrastructure as the gifting segment, contributing roughly a quarter of revenue.** - **A natural extension of the paper know-how** - the company’s stationery range is produced at the same Manesar factory that prints greeting cards, so the machinery, labour, and raw-material sourcing are shared across both product lines. - **Sold through the same multi-channel pipes** - stationery reaches customers via the company’s own stores, franchise outlets, distributors, and online marketplaces, meaning the segment benefits from the retail network without needing a separate sales force. - **Targeted at the back-to-school cycle** - the launch of the brand mascot ‘AMA’ in August 2023 came with an expansion into back-to-school essentials and kid-specific merchandise, directly aimed at the juvenile and family stationery buyer. ## 3. Print, pack and paper bags: the factory’s second job, serving other brands **A B2B manufacturing business housed in the same three-lakh-square-foot Manesar plant that makes Archies’ own products, now printing books and producing kraft paper bags for domestic and international clients.** - **One factory, two customer bases** - the centralised facility at IMT Manesar runs offset printing machines like the RYOBI 925D and a CTP plate-making unit, and it produces both the company’s own retail goods and third-party print jobs under the same roof. - **Paper bags are a regulatory tailwind play** - following India’s Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules of 2022, the company began manufacturing brown kraft paper bags for brands such as Woodland, Relaxo, and Octave, installing a machine capable of 150 bags per minute in mid-2022 and adding a Flexo Printing Machine and a Slitting Machine later that year. - **Export orders validate the quality** - the company has secured purchase orders from international retailers including TJX Companies (the parent of T.J. Maxx) and Anthropologie, with a single export order from TJX Group in June 2025 valued at INR 4.26 crore. - **Complete printing solutions under one roof** - the division offers book printing, offset book printing, binding, pre-press, and concept design, making it a single-vendor shop for publishers and brands that need finished printed products. # Group structure and partners **A family-controlled, standalone Indian public company with no subsidiaries or joint ventures, run by the second generation of the founding family alongside independent directors.** - The promoter group-the Moolchandani family-holds 62.25% of the equity, with Anil Moolchandani as Chairman and Managing Director, his brother Jagdish as Executive Director, and the next generation represented by Varun Moolchandani and Hanisha as Executive Directors. - The company has no subsidiaries, joint ventures, or associate companies; it is a single legal entity with its registered office and factory both located at IMT Manesar, Gurugram, Haryana. - The company’s shares are traded on both the BSE and the NSE, and related parties disclosed include Empire Greeting & Gifts Private Limited, Jagdish Moolchandani, Anil Moolchandani, and others.