Name me one furniture brand in India,” challenges Pankaj Poddar. Arms folded across his chest, he waits for a response. When an answer is hard to come by—excluding furniture marketplaces like Pepperfry and Urban Ladder—the 40-year-old founder and CEO of Hipcouch, an end-to-end interior decorating services company, smiles knowingly. “That’s because there’s aren’t any [branded players of significance],” he says, “The market is completely fragmented and unorganised.”

Publication: Forbes (Online)

Date: October 30, 2018

Mumbai-based online furniture startup Pepperfry has reshuffled its senior management, as it looks to expand product offering. Hussaine Kesury, former head of furniture vertical, will now act as the Chief Activation Officer. He will be taking care of the brick and mortar Studios, which enables customers to touch and feel products, before buying them. These studios contribute about 25-30% to the furniture e-tailers’ sales.

Publication: The Indian Wire (Online)

Date: October 30, 2018

The company in question is Swedish multinational and the world’s largest furniture retailer IKEA, which recently opened its first store in the country, six years after getting the approvals. In the past six years, its India arm, IKEA India, has spent more than Rs 5,250 crore and opened one store, started construction of its second (Navi Mumbai) and third store (Bengaluru); acquired land for another couple of stores and is currently in the process of acquiring land across half a dozen cities for further expansion. For the record, IKEA India’s first store in HITEC City, Hyderabad, which opened in August, took two years to build.

Publication: Business World (Online)

Date: October 30, 2018