Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Aug 03, 2007
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Aug 03, 2007 ePaper |
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Marketing
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Strategy Somfy India expanding in tier-II cities
Sravanthi Challapalli Chennai, Aug. 2 Somfy India, an arm of the France-based Somfy group which makes motorised/sensor systems that control openings and closures (of curtains, screens and window blinds) in homes and buildings, expects to take its business to 12 tier-II cities in the next six months. Mr Emmanuel Cantegrel, General Manager, Somfy India, told Business Line that business was growing by 30 per cent every year for the last three years. Somfy has been in India for six years now. It has offices in the four metros, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Of late, it has been taking on projects even in smaller cities such as Coimbatore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam. Somfy’s customers are typically corporate offices, hotels, hospitals and high-end residences both apartments and individual houses. Institutions account for 70 per cent of its business. There is much scope for the business in India as it is energy-saving in nature, but people need to be educated about its value, Mr Cantegrel said. Using automatic sensors for curtains or blinds to control the amount of light/heat coming into a room reduces the users’ dependence on electricity, and payback on investment will come in two or three years, he said. The price per window for a motorised blind system would begin at Rs 12,000. The company is also mulling R&D for an economical range of products, he added. Somfy India is working with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the Confederation of Indian Industry and TERI (Tata Energy Research Institute) on energy-saving solutions and green building concepts, Mr Cantegrel said. It builds its market by talking to architects, interior designers and project developers who can recommend its products to end users. The products are available through furnishings stores and blinds assemblers. There is a five-year warranty on the products and after-sales support too, he added. Other companies offered only a two-year warranty, he said, explaining that these companies do not have establishments in India but sell through traders. The company has just begun doing business in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives, said Mr Cantegrel, who looks after the South Asia business. The €600-million Somfy group has been in existence for 30 years. Its biggest markets are France and Germany. It is present in 30 countries through subsidiaries and in 60 others through representative offices. Its systems are manufactured mostly in France. Brazil, China, Russia and India are the growing markets for Somfy, Mr Cantegrel said, adding that India contributes 3-5 per cent of the global turnover. If the business does well in the next five years, Somfy may even consider manufacturing in India and making it a hub for the South Asian region, he said.
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