Haworth, a $2.5-billion US-based global furniture maker, will expand and strengthen its footprint in India to tap the fast-growing domestic market.
It will invest around $10 million in setting up its second factory at Sriperumbudur. The new plant adjacent to the present factory will double the space of its current plant totalling to 1,13,000 sq ft, said Henning Figge, President of Haworth International, which offers premium global workspace solutions to clients like IOC, ONGC and HSBC.
The factory will produce some of the key Haworth products such as the Zody, Fern, Aloha, HAT, Intuity, Riverbend, IQ commercial, Pebble, Tibas, Shift and Poppy and Cabana (soon to be launched) range of products. This will allow the company to leverage the promising market prospects and meet the growing demand for its premium workspace solutions in the country, he told newspersons on Wednesday.
In addition to meeting the needs of the domestic market, furniture and components produced at the factory will be exported to North America and Europe, he said.
In CY2022, the company’s plant at Sriperumbudur manufactured 1.50 lakh chairs for the local market. “The Indian market is so huge. We don’t have any plans at the moment to export our products,” he said.
Globally, India is now the third largest market for Haworth after the US and France. India overtook China to become the third largest, he said.
Chennai showroom
Haworth also inaugurated its brand-new 26,000-sq-ft showroom in Chennai displaying the company’s products and also various concepts of workspaces, interior, seating desk and meeting rooms.
“The decision to expand our operations in Chennai stems from our commitment to meeting the growing demands of our customers and seizing new opportunities in the market. The increasing demand for our products, coupled with the region’s strategic significance as an industrial hub, makes Chennai the perfect location for our new factory.
Praveen Rawal, Vice-President - Sales, Haworth APAC, said, “The size of the performance workspace solutions market is around $300 million in India. There is a lot of demand in the Indian market with IT companies looking to set up their offices in tier 2 cities for their employees.” The company plans to foray in to tier-2 markets like Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Indore and Bengaluru, he added.
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