Modular wardrobe, kitchen & furniture fitting by Salice are Made in Italy. It comes with the advantage of being a known name in the Indian building materials market. Vivek Modi, Managing Director, Salice India Pvt. Ltd. gets in conversation with BuildingandInteriors and talks about the present and future prospects of Salice.
B&I: What differentiates Salice from the other players in the modular kitchen, wardrobe, and furniture markets today?
VM: Salice offers a perfect blend of design, quality, and innovation with 100% made-in Italy product range which has hardly been experienced in the Indian market to the best of its potential till now. Salice has more than 600 patents registered in its name and many products which are not available with any current player in the market.
B&I: You already have had a presence in India through distributors. When you come to India as a wholly-owned subsidiary, what are some of the prominent objectives from the Indian market?
VM: Despite today’s challenging business environment, Salice is continuing its tradition of constant development by expanding its operations to closely reflect the ever-changing demands of world markets. The establishment of Salice India brings a further important extension to Salice’s global reach and marks the consolidation of its presence in one of the fastest-growing economies.
Which all states and cities are on your focus over the next 1-2 years? How many distributors and retailers are you looking to appoint in this period? What kind of sales turnovers do you expect to achieve over 1-2 years?
We are appointing channel partners across the country and in the next 1-2 years major focus will be on Tier I, Tier II & potential Tier III cities. More than the numbers we are working towards joining hands with the right set of potential channel partners in the premium furniture hardware space who can represent Salice in its true spirit.
B&I: What are your qualification criteria for identifying distributors and retailers? Are you looking at any alternative distribution network as well? What are the support services you offer to a potential distributor/retailer?
VM: Primarily we are evaluating channel partners on criteria like reputation in the market, engagement with influencers, possibility to set-up functional display of our products, and last but not the least financial capacity to grow along with us. we have a dedicated sales team in all four regions along with trained technicians to help our partners with technical and installation support for our fittings, along with this we will be continuously reaching our customers, influencers, installers through digital and offline marketing campaigns, exhibitions, and various other modes of brand and product awareness activities.
B&I: Architects and Interior Designers – What is your message for this audience that can work with Salice? What advantages does he/she get by associating with the brand?
VM: Salice has products for every corner of the house be it the kitchen, bedroom, living room, or bathroom & offering a unique proposition to Architects and Interior designers to blend best functionality in their furniture designs. Our minimalistic design products like Air Hinge, Lapis Hinge, Wind liftup system, Pacta flap down system, Lineabox,Pin System will surely attract their attention, Salice is also offering premium sliding fitting range with coplanar systems for doors weight ranging from 10kg -100kg, Glow+ system for overlapping doors,Exedra pocket door system, Mover vertical sliding systems, we also have premium modular wardrobe Accessories collection range which won the Best of the Best award at Interzum 2019.
B&I: OEMs – kitchen, modular wardrobe, and furniture manufacturers. What roadmap you have for this community? Do you provide some exclusivity advantages to those OEMs which plan to work exclusively for your line of solutions?
VM: Salice product line will naturally attract OEM’s; for example, our Silentia+ hinge provides maximum overlay compared to other options available in the market. Similarly, we have various options available in sliding fitting which will help them to offer the best solution to their customers. I am sure OEM using Salice products will offer better and differentiated solutions to their customers which will enhance their reputation in the market.
B&I: How do you look at project business? How would it work for Salice India?
VM: Looking at our range of modular wardrobe and other products we will fit into the premium project landscape and in the beginning, we would be selectively active in this space, and the rest of this will be catered through our channel partners.
B&I: How much of Salice global range is offered in India? Tell us about your warehousing facilities in India. For the ranges not usually available, what are the typical lead times to get them to your customers?
VM: Salice’s global range remains quite big and continuously evolving since 1956 when first patent of concealed self-closing hinge was registered in the name of Salice. Indian range is introduced keeping local requirements in mind and it will keep increasing with time. Also, I can say that now Indian market will also have access to new range of modular wardrobe, kitchen, and furniture products earlier than before. We have setup 12,500 Sqft warehouse with all modern amenities in Bhiwandi which will service all local requirements and our endeavor is to provide quicker and faster deliveries to our customers with maximum availability of the products.
B&I: Display and application centres are quite popular and effective in furniture fittings and modular wardrobe solutions. What is your opinion on that? Do you have plans on these lines?
VM: I completely agree with your point and we are already coming up with around 2000 Sqft display center along with our corporate office in Thane which will showcase a big range of our products, it is expected to be functional by mid-July, we are also working on business propositions where our partners will put up display galleries in a different part of the country.
B&I: What are some of the challenges and opportunities you see in the Indian market?
VM: I find more opportunities than challenges in Indian market. India is one of the fastest-growing economies, aspiring customers to have better solutions, maturing organized modular wardrobe and furniture market, increasing exposure and taste of international trends, high spending capacity in Tier II & Tier III cities, the biggest challenge for us will be to cover such big demography in lowest possible time and customers product preferences varied in different part of the country.
