Gautier lures middle-class with affordable tags

Nov 21, 2009

French furniture brand Gautier is trying to woo the Indian middle-class with lower price tags. It has developed products at lower prices (such as beds for Rs 19,995) to cater to the large middle-income group, reports Business Line.

Globally too, the €150-million brand caters largely to the mid-market. But with an import duty of 26 per cent, the products attain a premium pricing in India, which Gautier wants to shed that imagery by launching products developed specially for the Indian market at lower price points, even if it means taking huge cuts in margins, the report added.

“For the last one year, the company has been trying to remove the perception that French brands are, in general, expensive and therefore, Gautier must be unaffordable. When we launched in India, the pricing was premium, with products catering only to the upper middle class. We then realised there is a big segment below which is interested in modern furniture provided it is affordable,” quoted K A Parameswaran, CEO, Ebony Gautier, a joint effort of Ebony Retail Holdings and Gautier, in the report.

In 2007, when the first Gautier showroom was launched in Noida, its beds were priced from Rs 40,000 onwards. Now, the brand offers beds at a sub-Rs 20,000 starting price. Gautier beds are priced between Rs 19,995 and Rs 90,000. “There is a bed for every Rs 5,000,” said Parameswaran.

While dining sets were earlier priced from Rs 60,000, Gautier now has dining sets starting from Rs 33,000. Sofas cost between Rs 40,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh. “We will introduce more varieties at these price levels,” Parameswaran added.

Ebony Gautier has four showrooms (Noida, Gurgaon, Chennai and Bangalore). In phase one (the next 12 months), it plans to open eight more stores.

Ebony Retail, which is the exclusive distributor for Gautier furniture in India and SAARC, also plans to set up stores in the neighbouring countries in the SAARC region after the first phase of operations.