@home expands to 10 cities

Pune: The home solutions store from Asia''s largest producer of moulded furniture and plastic crates, Nilkamal Ltd''s @home, has announced the opening of a second store in Pune, and big retail plans.

Nilkamal is now shifting focus to its retail venture, having consolidated its plastics (Nilkamal Ltd), crates & bins (Nilkamal Crates & Bins) and marketing services (Stackwell Marketing Services) businesses.

According to Manish Parekh, director, @home, the company started its journey in the home furnishings business in 2005, with the opening of its first store in Pune, and is now planning on continuing the same by opening more stores across India, and plans to take its total the total to 16 by the end of the current fiscal. New stores are planned for Coimbatore, Surat, Thane, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and New Delhi, which will mark the retailer''s foray into the North Indian market.

According to reports, 38 more @home stores will come up between financial years 2009 to 2012, which will take the final tally of stores to 50 under the fast-growing lifestyle furniture segment. Presently, the company runs 9 @home stores, with its Chennai outlet being the largest having a floor spread of 33,000 sq ft.

As of now, @home is present mainly in the Southern and Western domestic markets. According to Parekh, Rs75 crore has been earmarked for expansion.

Parekh said that the company recorded revenues of Rs29 crore in its first year of operations. He said he is optimistic about a revenue figure of Rs70 crore this fiscal. Reportedly, he said that the company is seeking a turnover of somewhere between Rs600 and Rs1000 crore by 2010-11.

The new store at Pune showcases 20 living room styles, 18 bedroom styles and 20 dining room varieties, in addition to home accessories and soft furnishings. These products comprise imports from Turkey, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Parekh said that once @home reaches critical mass, it would look at manufacturing these products domestically.