Expanding to living spaces
Expanding to living spaces

Magppie which has been known as the tableware brand is now writing a new story of being a complete home solution provider. After the stint with the brand Icecubes in 2007, Magppie starts afresh in the modular kitchen arena. Looking forward to a new start, Vinod Jain, Managing Director, Magppie shares his plans, in a one-on-one with Gunjan Piplani.

GP: With a second innings in modular kitchens, where do you see Magppie going from here on?

VJ: Magppie now plans to become a complete home solution provider. We will not just stick to kitchens. This journey which started with a bottle opener has moved to kitchens, bars, wardrobes and will soon move to terraces and other living spaces. For this we have also changed our logo which is designed in such a way that it depicts ‘I am home’. Following this philosophy, we are looking towards complete home solutions in next five years. We are working with an international team of designers.

GP: Who are your target consumers and how are you promoting your kitchens?

VJ: We are targeting people with annual income Rs 10 lakh and above. With the launch, we will be doing a lot of advertising and advertorials. Moreover, modular kitchens is a very one to one business driven by customer relationship. We will do a lot of events, inviting people to our stores creating a live kitchen for them to make them understand about the functionality. We will be having about 25 -30 people every week in each store. This word of mouth will help us get to more people.

We will also bring in people who are building new home, architects and designers. These people will also act as influencers for us.

GP: With this new kitchen and bar concept store, what is your retail expansion plan from here on?

VJ: In terms of our retail presence, this is our first concept store. We will soon have one in Mumbai of similar size. Additionally, once all our solutions are in place, we will see some large format, about 12,000 sq ft, stores, which will be complete Magppie home solution stores. So with 2013 we will have three new stores, one concept and mega store in Mumbai and one mega store in Delhi.

We are targeting Delhi and Mumbai for now, as most of the disposable income lies with people in these two cities and Magppie is a well known brand here. Then, we would like to go to Punjab, cities including Ludhiana and Chandigarh. We already have an accessory store in Chandigarh which will soon be converted into a concept kitchen store.

Next area would be Ahmedabad and Bangalore where I see a huge potential.

Overseas, we have a store in Sydney. We have been receiving proposal from various European countries for our stores but we want to push ourselves properly in India first.

GP: What investments have gone into this transformation that Magppie is making now?

VJ: We had invested about Rs 60 crore six years ago in technology in our unit in Kundli, Haryana.

GP: How much time the complete process takes once you get the order?

VJ: The designing takes about three-four weeks, the delivery takes two-three months and installation is a quick process of five days.

GP: What is your take on the current modular kitchen scenario in India?
VJ: The Indian market is transforming in the same way that the European market did. 10 years back people used to invest only in living rooms, and then came the bathrooms and now its kitchens. Looking at the Indian consumers, they are very adaptive and anything new we launch they are willing to take it. Now same is happening with the kitchens, people are asking for concepts and they are ready to spend.

GP: What is your vision about Magppie in kitchens from here and what revenues do you expect?

VJ: I see this company, in next three years we want to touch 400 crore in kitchen segment. We are looking at big business in terms of commercial value. We want to be a brand for India, Poggenpohl which is a German brand catering to needs of German consumers, in India there is no Poggenpohl and I want to make Magppie the Poggenpohl of India.

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