Ebony Gautier to invest Rs 120 cr to set up 20 stores

CHENNAI: EBONY Homes, the home furniture retail arm of the $3 billion DS Constructions, has plans to invest Rs 120 crore to set up a chain of 20-25 furniture stores styled Ebony Gautier across the country by March 2012.

"In the first phase, we plan to expand operations in the north and the south, setting up around 10-12 stores in the next one year. We will hit the west and the east the following year with another 8-10 stores," Ebony Homes CEO KA Parameswaran told ET.

The company has an exclusive distribution agreement with French furniture major, Gautier, in India and the Saarc countries. In three years time, it will look at exploring these markets too, he added. It currently operates two stores in the NCR, one each at Noida and Gurgaon.

This is Gautier���s second innings in India, the first being its tie-up with the KK Birla group. The license to use the Gautier brand name ended in 2003 and the Birla entity renamed itself Style Spa. In its earlier avtaar, furniture was manufactured in India and the French company had lent its Gautier brand. In its current agreement with Ebony, the entire product range is manufactured in France and exported to India.

The total home furniture market in India is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore, of which around 15% is in the organised segment. A number of retail majors have their presence in this segment, including Home Town and Home Bazaar of the Future Group, @ Home by Nilkamal, KK Birla Group���s Style Spa, Godrej���s Lifespace and Home Stop from Shopper���s Stop.
Most of these players are in the home solutions segment, offering a range of products for the house ��� from furniture and furnishings to kitchen units and home appliances. Ebony Gautier plans to limit itself to the furniture segment along with and some furnishings to complement its products.

While work has begun for its Chennai and Bangalore stores and would be operational by mid-August, it is close to finalising the location at Hyderabad. The store size would average around 15,000 sq ft. Two more stores in Delhi are on the anvil and the company is scouting for properties at Lucknow, Jaipur, Kochi, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam, Mr Parameswaran said.

It is also in the process of setting up a 20,000 sq ft warehousing facility in Chennai. "Chennai would be our southern hub. Being a port city, we can directly import our furniture from this port, instead of routing it through Mumbai," Mr Parameswaran said. For the north, it already has a warehouse of similar size in Delhi.