Nilkamal plans @home mall in Coimbatore !!!

Nilkamal Ltd, a major player in the plastic and steel crafted material handling systems, plans to up its turnover from @home business to Rs 600 crore in the next three years.

The company, which diversified into furniture, lighting and home furnishing business two years ago under the brand name @home is keen to ride the realty wave to open 40 @home malls across the country by 2010-11, to touch sales of over Rs 600 crore, Manish Parekh, director, told reporters here. Nilkamal opened its second @home mall (10th all-India) in Pune.

Parekh said there was an increasing preference for acquiring readymade furniture as the high-income working couples don't find the time to get it made in the traditional way, hiring a carpenter. Another important factor, he said was the preference to change the furniture every few years, as against considering home furniture as a life long item.

The company has planned 40 more @home malls by 2010-11 with an investment of Rs 75 crore, Parekh said, adding that the next malls to open would be in Mumbai, Surat, Thane and Coimbatore. "We will also open @home malls in the North and have finalised locations in Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Delhi which will be made operational in the next four months," he informed. The company is in talks for a property in Gurgaon too.

Parekh sad the company would follow a strategy to select locations of 20,000 sft and more for the @home malls. “We will operate the stores ourselves and won’t take the franchisee route,” he stressed.

Parekh informed that the @home division of Nilkamal Limited contributed Rs 29 crore to the company’s business in 2006-07 and it is estimated to notch up sales of Rs 70 crore this year. Thereafter, the revenues will increase at a higher pace as the company will have reached major markets then, he said.

The company imports all its merchandise through a purchase office in China. The merchandise comes from Southeast Asia and Europe.

Parekh said the company would soon open its own design office and get the furniture and other items made according to designs based on the Indian preferences and usage patterns.

A design team has already been hired, he added.