Italian luxury furniture giant Chateau d’ Ax follows Ikea to Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Close on the heels of Swedish furniture giant Ikea choosing Hyderabad for its first India store, the Italian luxury furniture giant Chateau d’ Ax has teamed up with local furniture firm Vanto, to set up its first India flagship store at Hyderabad.

The Italian firm’s South East Asia head Cledwyn Passanah said they were looking at Bengaluru for its second store in South India within the fortnight and two more at Delhi and Pune before the end of the current fiscal.

The India expansion plan includes opening at least 40 stores, both owned and franchise, over the next five years involving an investment of over Rs 100 crore.

Vanto’s chairman and managing director Sunil L said the luxury furniture showrooms catering to the needs of growing high networth individuals (HNI) would for the first time in India offer most of the Italian furniture brands under one roof. Some of these brands include Milano & Design, Mercedes Benz, Mont Blanc, Bentley, Aston Martin, Flexform, Roche Bobois, Arketipo, Moroso and Ernestomeda among others. Passanah said Chateau d’ Ax was upbeat on the growing luxury furniture market in India, which is currently estimated at around $200 million and plans to explore setting up its own manufacturing facility in India.

The local facility, with at least 40% of localisation is aimed at catering to both domestic market and exports to neighbouring countries in the region.

“It may take another 2-3 years for us to firm up manufacturing base in India, which could bring down the cost by at least 30%.”