The ₹1,565-crore Century Plyboards India is expanding its retail network of its fledgling furniture vertical Nesta, which includes modular kitchen.

Keshav Bhajanka, the company’s director, told BusinessLine that it has set up 25 stores. “Our plan is to add 10 more stores this financial year,” he added.

Following an asset-light model, the company has gone in for franchisee route to expand. “Out of the targeted 35, only two are company’s own showroom cum retail points,” Bhajanka explained.

The company has established its retail presence in East and South for Nesta-branded furniture and modular kitchen in the past couple of years. It is adding five stores in Kolkata, three in Chennai and one in Hyderabad.

It also plans to have a store each in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. It plans to have outlets in Shillong and Siliguri too.

For furniture making, the company takes up capacities in a string of facilities through long-term arrangements. The facilities are supplied with plywood and laminates manufactured by the company.

The company, which was so far not making medium density fibreboard and was outsourcing it, has now decided to set up a facility in Hoshiarpur in Punjab, primarily for the furniture vertical.

This ₹3 crore unit, expected to be ready within a year, will have a capacity to produce 600 cubic metre of MDF per day. MDF accounts for 35 to 40 per cent of raw material for the furniture or ingredients for modular kitchen.

In the first of 2015-16, Century Plyboards’ furniture vertical has clocked a turnover of over ₹7 crore, more than what it recorded in 2015-16. The company has targeted this financial year revenue of ₹20 crore, as well as financial break-even.

It has restricted itself to localised marketing campaign in urban areas where it is present. As it expands its marketing network, it plans to allocate proportionately higher advertising budget to sales.

Related Topics