‘We are the sunrise sector’

“We have to understand that furniture is a capital spend and will create a vacuum in matured markets, leading to a recession for a few years, where the retailers of those countries will find it difficult to survive with low business,” says Satyan Thukral, CEO of Mumbai-based Caple Industrial Solutions.

The effect in India would be seen in the export markets in the short term. Exporters will look for new opportunities and avenues in other markets. So he sees a slight trend of solid wood furniture entering the domestic market.

According to Satyan, with more lengths of expressways getting operational to offer better connectivity, with new industrial corridors, townships and clusters in the pipeline, more people from the unorganised sector will move to organised furniture manufacturing.

“For the next few years, woodworking workshops and factories and the machine tool industry will be a sunrise sector in India,” he adds.

As India still has small workshops, the industry’s strategy should be to deliver more value at global quality standards, but at Indian prices. “This is our strength and sweet spot in the industry. Scale

and efficiency can follow once this is achieved,” Satyan feels.

Also, India should focus on low-cost automation, because high automation will take away jobs. “We don’t want only one section of the country to grow. We should be using the advantage of cheap labour with low-cost automation,” he stresses.

Caple is upgrading its Mumbai and Bengaluru showrooms and making them available to support the Skill India initiative. The Mumbai showroom will be spread over 16,000 square feet and host the best Indian, European and Chinese technology brands. This will help build a pipeline of skilled labour.

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