Financial Times

Kapoors seeks local market presence
By Akhry Ameer
India's Kapoor family well known for their soft furnishing fabric business launched a showroom in Sri Lanka seeking to expand its local market presence recently. The Kapoor family has been in partnership on a project basis with Madara Hettiarachchi, a Sri Lankan for over 15 years supplying soft furnishing fabric.

Hettiarachchi provides complete furnishing solutions such as sofas, curtaining, etc for many leading hotels, diplomatic and government institutions using materials exclusively from Kapoor Furnishings. Some of her major projects included the soft furnishing of the President's House and Temple Trees. She has also several hotel projects in the Maldives.

"Over the years we have found the market growing and so we thought of setting up a showroom to tap the retail market," said Anil Kapoor who will be investing in the form of stocks for the local operation. The showroom situated in Nawala is also part of a larger effort to offer benefits to the customer through the duty structure benefits obtained through the FTA. The Kapoor family also hopes to introduce its leather products through the showroom after a study of the market trends.

Hettiarachchi who will be heading Kapoor's Furnishings in Sri Lanka said that there is scope for a niche market for varied designs. "People are looking for new materials. They look forward to change in colours, designs and texture and often find it difficult to identify unique items in the market," she says. The local showroom will cater to a niche market for different designs but covering a vast price range to suit a wider segment.

Kapoor's Furnishings is a 25-year old family business manufacturing soft furnishing fabric in its own manufacturing facilities in Bhagly, around 100 km off New Delhi. They also follow a practice of designers working in Kapoor’s factories. Besides, supplying the Indian market, the company has also been catering to the US market for a similar period with specific designs prescribed by US architects.

Other markets include UAE, Singapore and Australia that are supplied on project basis. The family business also includes manufacturing of leather products and accounts for a combined annual turnover of US$40 million. Its planned expansion over the next year includes a showroom in Australia and Los Angeles, USA.

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