Kurl-on goes the Italian way

Sharing company’s national and international strategies and revealing its exclusive partnership with the renowned Italian designer Cesare, T Sudhakar Pai, Managing Director, Kurl-on Ltd speaks about company’s future plans. 


Subhro Prakash Ghosh (SPG): How do you foresee Kurl-on’s growth in India? What is its present growth rate? 
T Sudhakar Pai (TSP): Kurl-on’s Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the last three years has been more than 30 per cent. Kurl-on is expected to grow at a higher rate than this, mainly, because the company has introduced new allied-products. Recently we had set up a sofa manufacturing plant, near Bengaluru, with an investment of about Rs 120 million, with an installed capacity of 1,20,000 sofa sets per annum. We have six manufacturing units in India. 

SPG: Tell us about your business strategies to capture the domestic and the international markets. 
TSP: We constantly develop our business strategies to bring innovative products, expand product range and explore the interior markets, the core of our marketing activities. Currently, many new products have been introduced for tier-III markets at low price points. Many high-end healthcare products have also been introduced, this year. 

SPG: How many retail outlets does Kurl-on have in India? What retail formats do you have? Elaborate on your expansion plan. 
TSP: Kurl-on has total 14 ‘Kurl-On Nest’ stores in the country, out of which six are in Bengaluru; and one each in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Gurgaon and Lucknow. Each Kurl-On Nest store is spread over an area of about 1, 500 – 6,000 sq. ft. 

We have a plan to launch 15 more stores in the southern region and 100 more stores in other parts across the country, by the end of 2010. We also retail our merchandise through a network of 5,000 retail shops and intend to double the network size in the next two to three years. 

We are planning to set up a modernised plant for manufacturing the foam and spring mattress in Uttarakhand, in January, 2010. Globally, we are present in Bangladesh and Middle-East. Setting up a mattress manufacturing unit in Saudi Arabia with a local partner is in the pipeline. Then, we have assessed the opportunities in Europe to export our sofas. 

SPG: What is the price range of the Kurl-on products? What is the merchandise-mix in the stores? 
TSP: Kurl-on has evolved from offering only mattresses earlier to providing furnishings like curtains, upholstery, bed linen, bath linen and furniture for bedroom, dining room and drawing room, now. The Kurl-on stores showcase a diverse array of exclusive and innovative products available at affordable prices. The stores cater to the middle class and the upper class people. 

Mattresses are available in the range of Rs1,300-1 lakh, pillows range from Rs 100-3,000, bed linen are for Rs 400-1,500 and Sofas for Rs 35,000-8 lakh. 

SPG: You formed an alliance with Italian designer Cesare last year and forayed into furniture segment. Tell us about the kind of tie-up and the future plan you have with this partnership. 
TSP: Kurl-on had set up a 60:40 joint venture with the Italian designer Cesare to manufacture Italian designed sofas with an international touch and style. The design are procured from Italy and manufactured in India under the brand name ‘Kurl-on Cesare Ltd’. This not only imparts contemporary global touch to the brand, but also catalyses its impact in the Italian market, where the brand would consolidate its positioning. 

SPG: Share with us the franchising opportunity available with Kurl-on. 
TSP: We have ventured the franchise business model for rapid expansion. An average area required for a Kurl-on store is between 3,000-5,000 sq.ft. Our target is to open stores in 45 different towns and district head-quarters where Kurl-on has its own selling points to make logistics easier and timely availability. The franchisees need to have their infrastructure. The retail points, which will be called Kurl-on Nest, will be administered by the company. 

SPG: What kind of campaigning tools have you adopted to promote your brand? 
TSP: Kurl-on advertises through radio, print media and television to create more brand awareness. We also conduct BTL activities. We take support of banners and hoardings and are also into cinema slides. We also believe that the re-establishment of point of purchase with innovative designs create a big mark in the customers’ minds.  
 
SPG: What was your last annual turnover? What is your present market share in the organised sector? 
TSP: Kurl-on has doubly grown in three years, in terms of revenue and last year its turnover was Rs 385 crore. By the completion of 2011, the company plans to touch a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. 

SPG: What is the effect of economic downturn on your business? What is your strategy to cope with it? 
TSP: We are not at all affected by the economic slowdown because we have taken innovative steps to overcome the slowdown. This year, we have introduced mattresses at Rs 1,600 in the tier-III markets to combat slowdown. Last month, we introduced six types of healthcare mattresses specially designed for comfort and healthcare, the price range for which varies from Rs 49,000-1,69,000. These are specially designed products for the high-end users.