Each Konfor store will be above 10,000 sq. ft. store and will require an investment of around $150,000 to $200,000
Mumbai: Turkish premium furniture brand Konfor, which made its India debut on 3 October with a 12,000 sq. ft. store at Pune’s Creaticity Mall plans to open around 20 stores in 15 Indian cities, its representatives told IndiaRetailing.
“We have a strong business development plan. The cities we have identified are a mix of tier 1 and tier 2, selected based on their market potential,” said Serkan Sen, International Director, Konfor.
“Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad feature in our plan,” Sen added.
The brand plans to open about 20 stores in India in the next five years, growing at a rate of 2 to 3 stores per year. “We are not in a mad rush to open 100 or 200 stores and want to grow steadily and profitably,” said Mahesh M, CEO of Creaticity, which is the Turkish furniture manufacturer cum retailer’s exclusive franchise partner for India.
Each store will typically be upwards of 10,000 sq. ft. requiring an investment of $150,000 – $200,000, which will be made jointly by Konfor and Creaticity.
Creaticity operates a home and decor-focused mall in Pune. The 3.5 lakh sq. ft. mall holds the distinction of being the only centre in the country with 2 lakh sq. ft. space dedicated to the home category through HomeCity, which offers 52,000 home décor ideas, over 10,000 products, more than 100 national and global brands and exclusive brand stores.
Konfor is entering India with an exclusive range of Turkish-inspired sofas, beds, wardrobes, and accent furniture, manufactured at its massive plant in Izmir.
“At 1,63,000 square metres (approx. 17 lakh sq. ft.), we have the biggest production centre in Turkey. We manufacture everything a home needs from sofas, dining, living rooms, mattresses and accessories like textiles, carpets and other things based on European design,” Akin Can, deputy general manager, Konfor said speaking about the brand’s production capabilities.
“We make one mattress every 30 seconds 1,000 beds and 200 sofas in one day. This production capacity encourages us to go worldwide and India is one of the most important parts of this global expansion,” he added.
The brand will offer speedy delivery, free installation and a two-year manufacturing warranty on the products which are being imported from Turkey. Local manufacturing will be considered upon achieving scale and a thorough understanding of what works in the country.
In addition to exclusive stores, the brand will be available through the Creaticity website, e-commerce marketplaces, B2B partnerships, and shop-in-shop concepts and is currently in the process of identifying partners.
Initially, the brand will service the Pune region for offline as well as online orders and cover the rest of Maharashtra in the next three months as it builds scale.
Other than Maharashtra, the next store would most probably be in Bengaluru. “Expansion is a function of many things including the commercial deal we get. Our hope is to get immediately represented in the South. Having said that, if an opportunity comes up in Navi, Mumbai and Thane, which are also serviceable from where we are in terms of logistics, we may consider that also,” the CEO of Creaticity said.
Sen said that the brand’s main purpose is to understand the market well and then step by step, develop its presence and gain market share.
“I’ve been in this business for the last three decades. Till today, there’s not one company, which has been able to reach double-digit market share, which is a function of how fast an organised market grows. So, instead of market share, we are looking at how much of Konfor’s capacity can India take?” said Mahesh M.
However, the brand has set itself a target of becoming efficient at the store level. “Once we set up our stores in the listed 15 cities and every store becomes efficient in terms of turnover, then we will be reaching our target,” he concluded.
