Kerala’s Rs. 12,000-crore-a-year furniture industry will take the e-commerce route to scale up sale of knocked-down furnitureto stave off competition from international players.
“We are launching our own online sales site www.furnestore.com on Friday in Kochi,” said K.P. Ravindran, president of Furniture Manufacturers’ and Merchants’ Welfare Association Kerala on Wednesday.
The new online venture was expected to boost business substantially as furniture made in Kerala had strong demand across India, he said.
M.M. Jisthy, a furniture importer and seller, said that Kerala was on a strong wicket as far as its furniture industry was concerned.
The industry in Kerala is spread across 6,500 micro, small and medium units and is already doing business worth Rs. 500 crore annually through online sales. Big-time e-commerce ventures selling furniture and home accessories like Urbanladder and Pepperfry are already sourcing products from manufacturers in Kerala.
Mr. Ravindran, highlighting the reputation of the industry in Kerala, said that Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA had made preliminary enquiries with furniture-makers in Kerala.
As part of its efforts to provide new skills, develop new designs and acquire the latest equipment, a “cluster of clusters” will be built at Angamaly at a cost of Rs. 100 crore, Mr. Ravindran said.
Three acres has been acquired near Karukutty on National Highway 47, which will be an “innovative international furniture hub” housing a design facility, common facility centre, a permanent exhibition centre and a convention centre, spread over abut four lakh square foot of built-up space.
Fifty per cent of the project fund will come from the Union government under the head of Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme of the Commerce Ministry. Twenty-five per cent of the money will come from the State government. The stakeholder industry, which will float a special purpose vehicle, will pick the remaining share of investment.
The project, which has already received in principle sanction, is expected to be commissioned in 2018.
S. Santhosh, general manager KBiP of the State Industries Department said that the Bureau was helping out the cluster development programme for furniture-makers, which would allow introduction of world-class technology at affordable rates for the small units.
