Godrej Interio, a business unit of Godrej and Boyce, plans to annually open 100 stores over the next three to four years. A touch-and-feel experience is essential for the furniture business, and the company therefore intends to have a larger footprint, according to Swapneel Nagarkar, Senior Vice President and Business Head at Godrej Interio. Currently, it has 400 outlets across the country and generated revenue of ₹2,300 crore in FY22.
“Even though there are more customers online now than there were before the pandemic, offline experience centres are still a necessity,” said the Vice President. Without including the real estate cost, he noted that the price of establishing an outlet can range from ₹70 lakh to ₹1 crore, depending on the location.
The furniture company is also developing 50 to 60 new products, and plans to launch them in five to six months, said Nagarkar. “Customers are becoming sensitive to price points, and since we cater to the middle and upper-middle segments of the market, we are reworking our products to make them more attractive. These products will cater to the essential functional requirements of the customers, marry them with good aesthetics, and be marked at affordable rates. This would be for both business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) — the home business and office business,” he added.
Export business
The company intends to expand its export business because it believes that there has been a greater opening in the global markets since the pandemic.
“While our efforts are concentrated on the domestic market, it’s always better to keep some kind of backup, we want to increase our exports. We intend to adopt a mixed approach, which means we won’t be physically present everywhere. Moreover, we are also exploring some OEM opportunities to partner with more international entities,” explained Nagarkar.
The company has a Chennai unit, which is a fully export-oriented unit, and manufactures office storage to export to countries like Australia, and Canada, said the Vice President. “Apart from that unit, we are also doing some exports of the other products, which we manufacture at some other locations. Overall, our exports are in the range of around ₹75-84 crore annually,” he added. Godrej Interio has 11 manufacturing plants across the country.
The company expects to end FY23 with a turnover of ₹2700-2800 crore. With 3000 employees across its operations, the company runs three main verticals: B2B, B2C, and turnkey projects — infra business.