Nilkamal to launch kitchen, office furniture

Nilkamal Ltd, the largest manufacturer of moulded furniture and material handling systems, has finalised its plans to enter the kitchen and office furniture segment in April 2007.

Talking to Business Standard, Manish Parekh, director of Nilkamal Ltd, said, "We will launch a complete range of kitchen and office solutions in April 2007. The kitchen and office furniture will be part of the company's home solutions store under the brand name of @home."

The company will launch contemporary readymade knockdown wooden furniture. The @home stores were launched last year.

In the kitchen segment, the company will sell kitchen utility furniture of well-known Indian brands.

"The company will have a 'shop in shop' arrangement where the kitchen utility furniture of reputed company will be sold under the tag of the original manufactures," he said.

Elaborating the concept of 'shop in shop', he said, "Under this concept, the manufacturers of various types of kitchen furniture will open their own outlet within our stores." However, the quality of the furniture would be on par with the Nilkamal's quality norms.

"We are in talks with two Indian companies for setting up a joint arrangement for the kitchen segment," said Parekh.

He did not give more details on the proposed joint venture stating the talks were in the initial stages. However, he confirmed that the deal would be finalised by March 2007.

"For the office segment, the furniture will be sourced from Far East Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand and will be sold under the brand name - Nilkamal," said Parekh.

The company is targeting the middle and higher middle-class for its kitchen and office furniture business. For office furniture business, the company is targeting professionals like lawyers, doctors and even self employed individuals, entrepreneurs, who have craving for good office ambience.

The company will open its kitchen and office segment at all of its existing @home chain of stores in India that are located in Pune, Mulund and Kandivali in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Nashik and Bangalore. The company plans to spread its wings to 34 more cities in the next four years.

In the immediate future, it will open 10 new stores during the later part of the next financial year at an investment of about Rs 30 crore.