Hamley's, Britain's most famous toy shop, has been sold to a French company for an estimated £60m.
The 250-year old store, which has mesmerised generations of children with its seven storeys of toys and games on Regent Street in London, was taken over by Groupe Ludendo, which operates 300 toy shops across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.
The sale is the latest episode in the store's turbulent recent ownership history after attempts to modernise and reinvent itself. The brand began life in 1760 when William Hamley founded a toy shop called Noah's Ark at 231 High Holborn, London.
David Rowland, one of Britain's richest men and until recently Conservative party treasurer, owned a minority stake in the company through Bracken, a private equity group. The majority was owned by nationalised Icelandic bank Landsbanki, which took on the business following the collapse of its previous owner, Baugur, the Icelandic investment group that bought Hamleys in 2003.
The store has become part of the London tourist trail and is seen as quintessentially British, despite its foreign ownership – a trait it shares with Harrods, one of the capital's other big historic retail brands, now owned by Qatar.
Gudjon Reynisson, chief executive of Hamleys, said the focus would now be on "taking the fun, entertainment and theatre of Hamleys to new levels".
Jean-Michel Grunberg, chairman of Ludendo, said he would seek further international expansion. "We have the utmost respect for the Hamleys brand and heritage, as well as the unique interactive retail environment of fun, entertainment and theatre that it has created," he said. "We have every intention of maintaining this unique brand and what it stands for, and building on its successful international development."
Hamleys is most famous for its Regent Street shop where, controversially for equality campaigners, there are separate floors for girls' and boys' toys. Only last year did it stop labelling floors in blue and pink. Visitors are greeted by entertainers on the ground floor demonstrating the latest toys, from model planes to colourful juggling equipment to bubble-blowing mixture.
In recent years Hamleys' expansion has included eight outlets in the UK and Ireland and branches in Mumbai, Dubai and most recently Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Among its 22 stores are outlets in Denmark, Jordan, Cyprus and Russia.
The company had sales of £43m in the year to March 2011. The parties declined to reveal the exact sale price.
After the collapse of Landsbanki, Hamleys was among several British retailers under committee supervision pending a sale. The bank owned the businesses as a result of the financial crisis that left Iceland in turmoil in 2008 and the years that followed.
Ludendo's started as a single toy store, founded by Maurice Grunberg in a northern Parisian suburb in 1977. Its brands include La Grande Récré and Starjouet.