A One 2 One with Mr. Nikunj Shah, Partner, Sources Unlimited

FDT Bureau

Established in 2004, Sources Unlimited was formed by the visionary duo of Purav Mehta and Falgun Shroff, with an aim to introduce high quality, luxurious furniture to the Indian market. They passionately put together a team of motivated individuals to handpick furniture based on the individual tastes of their exclusive clients. Today, Sources Unlimited is the leading importer of branded furniture, lights and accessories. The company widely works with architects, interior designers, artists and stylists, and assists them in sourcing the right products for their end clients. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company has delivered projects throughout India, boasting of well-known public figures and top corporate houses amongst their list of clients. With a focus on giving highly personalized service, ‘Sources Unlimited’ has launched two showrooms—one in Mumbai and another in Delhi. Currently, Sources Unlimited has exclusive tie-ups with various European manufacturers such as Giorgetti, Rimadesio, Turri, Longhi, Baxter, Promemoria, Sicis, Wall & Deco. Besides these brands, they have numerous other high profile European design/Furniture houses associated with their network. While congratulating Mr. Nikunj Shah, Partner, Sources Unlimited at the opening of their new showroom in Delhi, engaged in an interesting conversation with him to know the brand more closely.

Furniture Design & Technology (FDT)

FDT: How are you different from others in the furniture/furnishing market?

Sources Unlimited is a 15 year old company. We are pioneers in European furniture, lighting, art and accessories and also the veneer brand from Italy. We cater to all the lifestyle products getting into interior projects. Now we have several verticals including furniture, lighting, art & accessories, veneer and SICIS.

We have separate teams catering to various interior design applications. We have tied up with many brands across Europe to represent them in India. At the store, we are showcasing Giorgetti Furniture, Rimadesio, Baxter, Turri in furniture brands. In lighting we have Gabriel Scott, Melogranoblu Blue, Davide Groppi, Coelux , Preciosa etc. In art and artefacts we have various designers across Europe. We have also tied up with a wall paper company called Wall & Deco. We also have CC-Tapi, a famous name in the carpet industry. In veneer, we have tied up with Latho, a European brand, which does exotic veneer. They are known for world class finishes and textures. We cater to all kind of requirements of architects for their high class and premium residents. Our main focus is to provide best services to the clients not only in importing and delivering but also after sales services that include timely delivery, best prices and affordability of our brands.

"We have separate teams catering to various interior design applications. We have tied up with many brands across Europe to represent them in India."

FDT: Which is your focus area: projects or retailing?

We are always focusing on projects because our prices are not acceptable to institutions, hotels or offices, because they are very price conscious. We still take up some premium areas like lobbies, presidential suits etc. in hotels. In offices, we may do the MD’s cabin and cabins of higher level people. We lso work on luxurious residents with the architects, whoever wants to design with European furniture, lighting, art and accessories.

FDT: As Sources Unlimited is working in different verticals, which verticals are you managing? Who all takes care of the other verticals?

I am one of the partners handling the lighting division. We have Falgun Shroff and Purav Mehta who look after the furniture. Then there is Mr. Kunj who takes care of Art and Accessories, and Mr. Vipul looks after the veneer segment. We all are specialized in all our streams. So we can give our 100 per cent knowledge and share our extensive experience in each segment.

FDT: How is your Mumbai showroom different from this new showroom in Delhi?

There is our head office as well as showroom in Mumbai. That showroom is basically our studio, which only opens by invitation in Mumbai. That is actually an experience centre in Mumbai, where interested customers can have an experience of European furniture, Lighting and accessories & other things. So that they can understand about the quality and their actual needs. For that knowledge we have created that experience centre. Whereas in Delhi, the showroom is located on main road where walk-in customers can also come.

FDT: Is there any plan to open more showrooms in India?

Yes, we are looking for the right partner and right space and plan to open new showrooms in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. This is our target for the coming year.

FDT: The affordability of your furniture belongs to high end customers who comprise a smaller segment of the market. In such scenario, what is your strategy to attract such people and increase sales volume?

Our furniture is very widely accepted. Basically there was always an audience or people who used to travel abroad and knew the quality and taste of the new furniture. Now world is becoming smaller and people are able to visit a lot of exhibitions, media is also now promoting/sharing their knowledge about European furniture and lightings, art and people are becoming more and more aware about this. So, acceptance is also increasing, people have money but they need value for everything whatever they want to buy. So, such awareness is helping us to market and grow. Still it is limited to a certain segment of the population and probably they don’t have budget to do these kind of works but there is a good percentage of people who use European furniture.

"Now world is becoming smaller and people are able to visit a lot of exhibitions, media is also now promoting/sharing their knowledge about European furniture and lightings, art and people are becoming more and more aware about this."

FDT: As you are importing the furniture from Europe, what kind of collaborations do you have with the European companies?

We have the distributors or agents for the company. We have very strong collaborations with many brands where we justify their presence as we always upgrade their brand value. We have partnerships with some reputed brands.

FDT: For your new showroom, what kind of model you will adopt to ensure the fastest delivery of furniture and other items to Indian customers?

The delivery of furniture will take around four and half months. Because, whatever we have in the store that fabric needs to be changed as per the designs to match the curtains or requirements. Each and every model has various finishes and textures. We put up the products only for understanding the model. Actual orders are customized as per the need and requirements of the architects. Whatever we have in stock that has to be manufactured again as per the required fabric and needs; so for delivery it takes around four and half months. Three months is manufacturing time and one and half months for transit and shipping.

FDT: Are you associated with architects and people from the interior community?

We are associated with many architects across India who are involved in projects and we are also offering our services to them. We are dealing with around 60 percent of the leading architects. Majority of the architects are from Delhi and Mumbai and few architects are from big cities like Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. They are well known people. They come to us for their repeated orders.

FDT: Currently, the Indian furniture industry is facing the problem of economic slowdown. In such a scenario, how do you foresee the growth of your venture?

We currently have no issues related to that and are having reasonable amount of projects in our hand. I don’t think the recession or economic slowdown has any impact on that kind of segment where we exist. The people who really want to use such kind of furniture are not affected with the said slowdown sentiments.

FDT: Presently, real estate projects are getting delayed and the number of such projects have also decreased. How do you think this will impact your business?

This slowdown is again balanced with the awareness about it. For example, earlier we used to have 50 percent of the projects which are related to new premises, which you are mentioning are not developing for some reason. They have gone down for us but few other avenues have opened for us instead. There are a lot of projects related to refurnishing of houses, renovation of old bungalows or designing villas. In these segments, there is no recession and we are able to have the business opportunity.

FDT: There is a large number of players in the business of importing furniture and selling the same in the Indian market. In such a scenario, what kind of challenges do you face?

There is always a tough competition in terms of the import cost. We have the cost on higher side with quality and services. There may be people or companies working on lower margins probably to import the materials.

FDT: What is the price range of your furniture items?

When we talk about single seater sofa or three seater sofa, thumb rule price is around Rs 2.50 lac per seat. Beds range from Rs 6 lac to Rs 30 Lac. The price depends on the brands, fabrics, size, designs etc. All our products are for high-end customers.