Last updated : June 27, 2019 11:19 am
Brands now have started to look at cost-effective solutions says Dovetail Furniture Co-founder & MD Sundar Subramaniam.
You have been in the fixture business for over 30 years now. Tell us about your journey so far. How did you evolve based on the market requirements?
We started our journey in 1985, back in the days when retail design in India was in its initial stages. There were very few workshops that manufactured designs as per specifications. So, we decided to set up our own facility which would translate designs into actual forms as desired. Our first client, Weekender, came to us to
The variation and challenge in work came with Asian Paints Colour World. For this, we designed shop-in-shops and went on to produce kits for over 1000 locations across the country.
Working with brands like Calvin Klein Jeans, FCUK, Puma, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer gave us a lot of exposure to global standards of shop-fit and the process of learning followed with the strict measures of quality standards, prototyping and approvals from these international brands. We started with both wood and metal and we never had a problem of being metal intensive or wood intensive. Anything we do is very brand driven and is very responsive.
Did cost ever become a problem for you with the premium brands?
In the beginning brands were willing to pay a premium for quality and reliable delivery, but now they have started to look more at cost effective solutions. In the 90s, till about 2009, cost was not such a big issue. For the international brands particularly, quality was the utmost priority. But now many brands are just looking for the lowest cost, and wouldn’t stay with us for very long if they found somebody more cost effective.
Read the full, detailed interview in the special Fixture section of the June 2019 issue of VM&RD.