Plan to tie up with kitchen retailers
Plan to tie up with kitchen retailers

Kitchenware industry is seeing a boom with a lot of high-end kitchenware and modular kitchen brands are making their way in the market. With consumers willing to shed that extra penny, Le Creuset, a kitchenware brand, looks at creating a market for itself. Yashpal Manik, Business Head, Le Creuset shares his plans with Gunjan Piplani of www.indianretailer.com.

GP: Kindly give a small brief about the brand and its presence worldwide.

YM: We are a kitchenware brand present across Europe, USA, Australia, South Africa , Japan, India and across South East Asia.

GP: What made you come to India?

YM: India has a huge potential and is one of the leading retail destinations in the World. It is one of the fastest growing economies.

GP: Is it a fully owned subsidiary in India or have you tied up with any distributor or promoter?

YM: It is a fully owned subsidiary.

GP: What is market potential for cookware in India when the market is full of un-organised players calling for stringent competition?

YM: We are an aspirational brand and un-organised players don’t affect us. We are unique and don’t have competition. Moreover, we are the only player to have life-time guarantee on most of our products.

GP: What are your marketing and promotional strategies for India? What would you put as the USP of Le Creuset?

YM: Lifetime guarantee and the most aspirational cookware brand across the globe.

GP: India is a very different country when it comes to cooking ware, have you moulded your designs or introduced any new designs to meet the need of the Indian consumers?

YM: Our core range is available across all countries, but we do go local and develop products specific to a country. We will do the same here.

GP: How do you plan to retail your brand? What would be an ideal Le Creuset store in terms of size, design and products?

YM: The store size would vary between 800 and 1500 sq ft area. The design would be super premium as the Brand is.

GP: Do you plan to tie up with kitchen manufacturers and retailers to further promote your brand?

YM: Yes, we are looking at tying up with kitchen manufacturers and retailer to further promote our brand. Modular kitchen is an industry where our products fit well, so tying up with them would be a step forward.

GP: What will you focus more upon - Retail sales or institutional sales?

YM: Currently, being a new brand in the market, the need is to create awareness among consumers along with visibility. So, for us we are keeping retail as the key to further expand into the Indian market.

GP: Elaborate about the product range you are bringing to India.

YM: We will have full range of products in terms of kitchenware. We will soon be introducing Junior range for kids which will further enhance our target audience.

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