We have aggressive plans for Shop-in-Shop expansion: Tomy Sebastian

The brand has completed almost a decade in the market. How would you will some up the journey so far?

When we started working on this brand about 10 years ago the idea was to bring in Indian designs and create products as per international standards. The journey so far has been very encouraging over the span of last four years we have produced over 4000 different products which are well accepted. Though, it is a very niche market and we continue to cater premium segment of Indian consumer space as far as home decor range in concerned.

Don’t you think the time has arrived to bring the brand to international markets?

We have not started retailing internationally; though, we had few interactions with distributors and potential consumers overseas especially in US in European market. We are looking at establishing arttd’inox as brand in these two markets eventually over next three to four years of time.

What are the expansion plans as far as Indian distribution is concerned?

As of now, we have above ten stores in India; primarily in all these stores are located in metro cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc. Among these five are company exclusive and rest is franchised. These are two business models that we have explored so far. The model now we are looking at is to increase our presence via shop-in-shop(SIS) model at prime locations across the country. To execute the same, we are already in touch with many modern retailers across the country.

How was the experience while working in franchised model?

We have been very selective in bringing the franchisee on-board and we have very specific requirement to follow in terms of store ambience, layout, decor, etc. We do not aim to extend the franchised model beyond a certain level because we are keen to maintain the exclusivity of the product. In fact, shop-in-shop will be introduced only for one product category from two our existing categories including table wear and home décor and luxury kitchen. We are not looking to expand the kitchen segment further.

How you will justify product display in shop-in-shop model since the allocated space will be limited? Also shed light on your best performing collection?

The way it works is like a fashion industry, its keep-on changing. We usually display new designs which are further segregated into different categories such as beverage holders, dining sets, etc. ‘Pink bloom’ is our best selling collection so far, we have introduced this line three years back. And till date it is going strong. Usually, we introduce the new collection twice a year, once before Diwali and before March every year.

Kindly shed light on your average price points for exclusive stores and SIS?

For exclusive store, the range starts from Rs.1000 and goes as high as Rs. 50,000. And for SIS we would be introducing range from Rs1000 to Rs4000.

What are plans for online expansion?

We are very active on running social media campaigns to reach out to right audience. Apart from that we also have our exclusive web store.

Kindly shed light on your store profile in terms of size and layout?

We have created a very relaxing ambience for the customers. Usually, our stores are spread across 5000 sq.ft. Carpet area and total space is equally divided for kitchen and  home décor products. Most of our customers are repeat buyers they tend to visit our store again and again. We have also installed live kitchens. Also, we have installed LCDs to showcase our product range that is further guided by our on floor sales people. In fact, we are in touch with various realty developers to showcase our range especially in kitchen category.

Indian kitchen space has become extremely competitive with contact burgeoning of premium international brands. So what is your strategy to stay ahead the competition?

We have been into this business over a decade now. We have actually developed the understanding of the consumer in much deeper way as compared to any MNC brand. We are offering products as per the requirement of Indian consumer. If you look at German or Italian kitchen their offerings are more or less same whereas our offerings are aligned towards Indian consumers. We have over thousand customers for kitchen now.