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‘Adopt, adapt and improve’

By N. Jayalakshmi & Smita Sinha | February 20, 2020

In a freewheeling chat with Retail4Growth, Amit Mohta, Joint Managing Director, Elemental Fixtures Pvt takes us through the journey of the company and how they are planning to become the ‘Amazon of the fixture manufacturing company’.

Amit Mohta, Joint MD, Elemental Fixtures PvtAsk him about his favourite quote and Amit Mohta, Joint Managing Director, Elemental Fixtures Pvt, promptly quotes a prominent character from the famous American  TV show ‘Billions’. The line roughly translates into,  “ We want to be too big to mess with”. Well, as someone who takes his inspiration from that, Amit sure knows what it takes to keep a business going even in the toughest of times. The name ‘Elemental’ itself was born from a vision to be the 6th element in a person’s life, as Amit informs.   

Bangalore-based Elemental Fixtures, which started its journey 6 years ago with a 15,000 sqft set-up and targeting only FMCG clients and the POP business, recently opened its new factory in Bommasandra, Bangalore. Spread across 4,30,000 + sq feet, the new factory comprises a dedicated millwork factory, metal workshop and powder coating under one roof. The company currently has a headcount of 500 workmen. With technologically advanced in-house capabilities supported by skilled artisans, the company takes pride in offering stunning transformations from design concept to reality, in the shortest possible time, for their clients.

While the retail fixture manufacturing industry in India has shown a lot of promise, it is also an industry beset by challenges.  In fact, for some industry players, counting on the retail segment seems like a risky business proposition given a multitude of factors. And with the overall market sentiments dampened owing to reports of economic slowdown, there’s a palpable air of caution in the industry. But despite these factors, a few manage to stay ahead and carve a distinct position in the market. One could attribute the success to many factors - foresight, ability to change and adapt, openness and willingness to try new things, and of course grit and determination. In a freewheeling chat with VM&RD, Amit Mohta takes us through the journey of the company, what keeps him going in this business, about the team, work culture and how they are planning to become the ‘Amazon of the fixture manufacturing company’.

To begin with, how does 2020 look like from a business point of view?

Overall retail business sentiments are down. Retail expenditure is reducing per sqft. The clients are not spending money. Six years ago, if the client were spending Rs 2000 per sqft, today they are spending Rs 800 per sqft.  Also, there is no clear number regarding what number of retail stores are going to open in India. Also, too many players have come into the market and the market share is being divided. But I see a huge growth opportunity in the F&B sector. So overall in 2020, we will have to re-look our business focus.

Traditional retailers seem to be an opportunity today especially in tier 2 and tier 3 markets. Are you planning to approach them?

As an organisation, we don’t know how to approach them. The approach of retailers in tier 2 and 3 cities towards design is very different. I think only organised large retailers are trying to grow in tier 2-3 cities, and even there, things are still on paper and are not happening in reality.

How are you looking at export?

We have done a couple of stores in Dubai. Hopefully, Euroshop will open up more opportunities for us.

In your six years journey what have your milestones? Like for example, were there instances when you have had to re-look at things and say “let's do this differently”?

Rahul Khetan my partner and I do not look at our business as a constant. We make sure our thoughts keep evolving around our core. When we started off, we were very clear that we would not do any installation work. After FMCG we decided to get into retail. What differentiates us from our competitors is that we believe in first building the infrastructure and then drawing in the customer. We have built every capability in house. We don’t believe in a model where we outsource capabilities and where we can’t control the timeline or quality. Also, we never change our business model looking at our financials.

Given our strong manufacturing capability, we are now looking at opening our own experience centre in the next one year. We are getting closer to that vision which we had put down on paper 6 years ago.

 

Read the full interview in the February 2020 edition of VM&RD Magazine.

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