The company is headquartered in Lyrr Building 1 in the Mervue Business Park, Galway, Ireland; it has additional offices in Belfast and London.
The group's turnover reached €1.465 billion in pandemic-hit 2020 with the majority of sales coming from the UK market.[3]
History
Before Smyths became a toy store it was a newsagent.
The company is run by three brothers, Tony, Padraig and Thomas Smyth. A fourth brother and director, Liam, died in July 2023.[4] The company was founded in Claremorris, County Mayo on 23 December 1986 (1986-12-23).[5] Smyths is Ireland's largest toy retailer.[6]
Expansion to central Europe
On 24 April 2018, Smyths acquired Toys "R" Us stores in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.[7] In 2019, all the stores in those countries were rebranded to Smyths.[8]
In July 2022, Smyths acquired French toy chain PicWicToys in France out of receivership, taking over 41 stores, 2 warehouses and a head office.[9]
In total, Smyths operates over 272 stores across 6 countries: 21 stores in Ireland, 117 in the United Kingdom,[12] 68 in Germany,[13] 16 in Austria,[14] 10 in Switzerland[15] and 41 in France. Smyths Toys UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.[16][17]
In 2023, Smyths confirmed it would expand into the Netherlands for the first time with new stores.[18]