• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Bindu D. Menon

New Delhi, Aug. 31 Mattress maker Kurl-on is expanding its horizons by branching into furniture retailing and home furnishing. As a part of its retail expansion, the over four-decade-old company is also mulling to go public soon.

“Kurl-on has a high brand recall and enjoys over 50 per cent market share in the mattress category. We are now expanding our activities to move towards home comfort from a sleep comfort business. The company is aggressively marketing bed linen, bath linen, upholsteries besides drawing room furniture,” Mr T. Sudhakar Pai, Chairman and Managing Director, Kurl-on, told Business Line.

The company with an annual turnover of Rs 335 crore and a dealer network of 5,000 pan-India, said its retail venture will promoted under the flagship outlet ‘Kurl-on Nest’.

Besides standalone retail formats, Kurl-on has also tied up with all major home adornment retailing companies such as Reliance, Shopper’s Stop and Neel Kamal-promoted @Home. “We will be having shop-in shops to take the retail concept further,” Mr Pai said, adding Kurl-on Nest will entail a retail space of 12,000 sq ft.

Speaking on furniture retailing, he said the company will be sourcing furniture besides contract-manufacturing. Mr Pai said the company will hit the bourse either by the end of this year or early next year.

For the mattress business, it is also looking to introduce the premium range for the discerning customer. The range will include a spine-care range and will be priced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 60,000 upwards.

On the challenges, Mr Pai said fake mattresses were eating into its market shares: “Out of 100 mattress sold as Kurl-on, 70 are duplicate. We have however devised methods to cut duplication and address the issue.”

More Stories on : Outlook | IPOs | Strategy | Interiors & Homes

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line