Home furnishings and interior solutions store Danube Home plans to go online in India next year.
Part of the Dubai-based diversified Danube Group, the store intends to open at least two more facilities in Hyderabad and one in Visakhapatnam besides sourcing and selling more Made-in-India products.
Speaking to media here on Thursday, on the occasion of Danube Home store completing a year of operations, group Director Adel Sajan said the plan on the online front was to sell retail products both on a to-be-launched portal and e-commerce platforms.
Serving as a key support infrastructure for the online foray, which General Manager Buying of Danube Home Sayed Habib said would be limited initially to areas within 200-300 km of Hyderabad, would be the warehousing facility of the company on the city outskirts.
According to Mr.Sajan, it is a 80,000 sq ft warehouse, well equipped to support three stores and with a scope for expansion.
On the status of the expansion programme, he sought to underscore the need to consolidate operations in Hyderabad and within the next three years, open four-five more stores. Typically, the estimated investment on a new store would be ₹30 crore, he added.
General Manager of Danube Home Shubhojit Mahalanobis said the new stores would be smaller format stores, about 25,000-30,000 sq ft. The existing showroom was 60,000 sq ft. Besides opening more stores, Danube was planning to establish experiential centres.
A release said in the first year itself, Danube Home had strengthened the foothold in the Indian market, meeting 90% of the projections. It was eyeing a growth of 25% in 2020 to penetrate new markets with a focus on online retailing.
Founder and chairman of Danube Group Rizwan Sajan said India was a focus market.
