Kurlon in JV with Italian firm

In its endeavour to become a maker of the entire range of household comfort products, the Rs 335 crore Kurlon Limited, the largest seller of rubberised coir mattresses in the country, has forayed into the sofa market.

The company has formed a 60:40 joint venture with an Italy-based sofa maker, Cesare, to manufacture and sell sofa sets both in the domestic and export markets.

The new company — Kurlon Cesare Ltd — will manufacture and market Italian sofas in India under the joint brand name, Kurlon Cesare. As a first step the company has commenced test marketing of sofa sets in select cities including Bangalore, G Sivaram, chief marketing officer, Kurlon Limited said.

“Our study of the sofa market has revealed that there are many types of ‘Italian’ sofa sets sold at prices of upto Rs 2 lakh. There is a huge demand for imported sofa sets and we want to make use of this opportunity by launching our own authentic ‘Italian’ sofas, designed by an Italian, at an affordable Rs 60,000,” Sivaram told Business Standard.

He said Kurlon has distributed some models of sofa sets to its key distributors and based on the customer feedback plans to launch them across the country. Kurlon also aims to market them through its Kurlon Nest showrooms. Presently, it has 10 such showrooms, of which three are in Bangalore. Kurlon plans to open 20 more showrooms in the cities of Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai this year.

“Eastern parts of the country, especially Kolkata will be our main focus market apart from the south,” he said.

Kurlon has set up a new production unit in Bangalore for making these sofa sets. While Kurlon will supply 70 per cent of the raw materials such as foam, wood, spring and tapestery required for the sofa sets, Italian company Cesare will take care of the production.

Cesare designers will be based in Bangalore who will supervise the design and stitching of the sofa sets. Initially, the company will make 400 sofa sets per day.

In addition to Italian designer sofa sets, Kurlon also sells other wooden furniture jointly with its Malaysian partner, Lim & Company. Apart from the new joint venture, Kurlon is eyeing acquisition of an office furniture-making company in Bangalore.

“We have shortlisted a couple of companies and hope to close the deal in the next few months,” Sivaram said.

The size of the furniture industry is presently estimated at Rs 12,000 crore. Kurlon aims to sell furniture worth Rs 240 crore by March 2010.

The company, which reported a growth of 21 per cent in its turnover to Rs 335 crore in 2007-08 compared to the previous year, is looking at a growth of 30 per cent during the present financial year.