Eyeing a major chunk in the Indian furniture business, Kerala-based Grand Legend Furniture has launched premium home and office furniture in the domestic market.
The company was so far concentrating on exports from its production facility at Kinfra Park, Kazhakoottam. Grand Legend is the forward integration project of Overseas Travel Group which has experience in timber trading and import.
The furniture market in India both in the organised and unorganised segment is estimated at ₹70,000 crore with Kerala leading the race with a market size of ₹10,000 crore. The growth of Kerala’s upper middle class has also turned out to be a fillip for the furniture market, which is growing at 25-30 per cent a year, M Parijathan, Managing Director, said.
The company, he said, is expecting a ₹25-crore turnover by the end of this fiscal and the figure is expected to touch ₹100 crore by the end of next fiscal.
To enter the domestic market, it had appointed 65 distributors across the State in addition to long-term exhibitions organised in major cities. In phases, the brand is planning to spread pan-India.
He said Grand Legend had invested ₹25 crore to set up the 60,000 sq ft modern factory at Kinfra Park. Teak, mahogany, mpingo, pincoda etc used for production of furniture are imported from Malaysia, Burma, Africa and Central America.
Though around 25 per cent of Kerala is covered with forests, the timber obtained from the Forest Department meets only a quarter of the demand, he said. While the domestically available teak costs around ₹4,000 per cu ft, the hardwood mpingo imported from African countries costs less than ₹1,500 per cu ft and offers quality and finish on par with teak, he added.