"We are aiming to double our revenues in every 3 years": Uttam Malani

Please share Centuary Mattresses’ journey so far? What kind of market share the company enjoys in the overall market?

Centuary Fibre Plates Pvt. Ltd. started-off as an OEM of rubberized coir for a then popular mattress brand called ‘Rilaxon’ to take advantage of zero sales tax in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in 1988. The company later on in 1992, launched its own brand of Mattresses - Centuary, which later became a household name in South and Central India. In the last 2 decades, Centuary mattresses has aggressively expanded its product range and geographical footprint. Over the years, Centuary Mattresses has grown from a single plant to 3 plants in the country – 2 in Telangana and 1 in Orissa.The company has also roped in Sania Mirza– the international Tennis star as its brand ambassador to propel the growth.

The company enjoys 15% market share in the organised comfort and bedding industry of the country.In the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the company holds about 25 per cent market share. We have been maintaining our growth at a CAGR of 18-19% per annum which is much better than the industry growth rate of 10-11% over the past 10 years. With a strong order book and a robust pipeline of innovative products, we are expecting a growth of around 40% in FY 2019.

What is your average selling price point, and which is your best performing range – what are the USPs and specifications of this range?

We are always ahead of our competition in terms of product offering and selling price point.Now-a-days consumers are more inclined to organized sector as they are more brand conscious, willing to spend more for the right product.Keepingthat inmind we have different price range to fulfil consumer needs.We have range from INR 7,500 to INR 80,000.The average selling price point for our mattresses is around INR 15,000.

Our mattress range has 5 collections –The Innovative Collection, Wellness Collection, Smart Collection, Comfort Collection and the recently launched ‘Signature Collection’ which is a tribute to Sania Mirza – our brand ambassador, and an offering to many like her - who dream big and need the power of better sleep to chase those dreams.Overall,we offer 28 total number of mattresses in 5 Collectionsoptions to our customers.

Our Signature Collection range has been doing very well in the retail market since its launch in April’2018.'Signature Collection' is the culmination of Centuary’s 30 years of product leadership and innovation in the Indian bedding and comfort industry. The collection uses the best quality materials for inner strength and the designer fabrics for a classy modern appearance in keeping with the times and younger customers. The mattress collection goes through stringent tests and quality checks to ensure the durability and comfort. Every mattress from the collection also comes with a self-assurance of a 7-year warranty.

Kindly shed light on your current distribution in the online as well as offline space. Going forward, what would the strategies to scale up the distribution?

At present, the contribution of ecommerce to our overall sales is at 3%, however, we are aiming to enhance it to 10% in the year 2018-19. The long- term strategy is to augment this category and scale it up to 25% in next 3 years. Currently, customers can buy our mattresses on our website and also on Amazon, Flipkart, Shopclues, Fabmart to name some of the ecommerce platforms. We have launched Mattsapp-which will improve the ‘Sales Closing Rate’ and also facilitate ‘Upselling’ to more premium products and price points.Today, Centuary Mattresses is present in the country with over 3,000 dealers and has more than 200 Exclusive Brand Stores. We are planning to open another over 100 Exclusive Brand Stores in the year 2018-19 in various states.

Can you share your growth plans?

We have a very well-planned growth strategy in place. We are aiming to double our revenues in every 3 yearsby adding new product lines, expanding distribution, investing in brand & consumer experienceand achieve the set target revenues of INR 1,800 Crores by the year 2025; to emerge as the leading player in the Indian mattress industry.We currently have two units in Hyderabad (Bolaram and Kazipally), Telangana and one in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, with a cumulative production capacity of 6,00,000 units per year. We have been expanding our capacities at all of our units by 20 per cent every year. The company has been investing INR 15-20 crores in the existing units for both brownfield capacity expansion and maintenance annually. We are now putting up one more manufacturing plant in Western part of the country. This will be an integrated plant, which we expect to be commissioned by 2020by investing about INR 50 crore.

According to you what are the major challenges as far as mattress retailing is concerned?

Compared to western markets which have a prescribed size of mattresses, there is lack of uniformity in Indian markets as far as size of mattresses is concerned. The knowledge of end customer about mattresses is also very low.Appropriate communication is needed to flow in terms of how the technology is involved in manufacturing the mattresses.

Mattress is a product which needs to be tested by laying over it before buying it. However, being part of a relatively shy community, Indian consumers rarely do that, as a result, sometimes, they end up buying an unsuitable mattress for them.

How do you see the mattress industry growing in India? What is the estimated size of mattress category in the overall mattress market in India?

There is certainly a shift happening from unbranded or cotton-based mattresses towards branded mattresses.In last few years the average growth of Indian comfort and bedding industry was 10-12% per annum and this is likely to grow at a CAGR of around 15% in next 5 years. Though there are various challenges faced by mattress industry in terms of quality, on other hand innovation has helped to shape up the growth. Evolution and upgradation are happening in retail touch points as well as technical innovations helped to improve hygiene, comfort and ergonomics.

The Indian Comfort and Bedding industry is today pegged at around INR 7,500 crores and currently, around 2/3rd of the industry is unorganized; out of the 1/3rd organized segment, close to INR 3000 crores is being generated.

 

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