The Strategy is to Go City by City and Saturate Each

Gerard McGurk, Head of Retail and Commercial Operations at Index Living Mall and Mahesh M, CEO, Creaticity speak about Thailand's numero uno furniture brand's strengths, its India entry and strategy

- Shiv Joshi

Last week, Creaticity—the Yerwada, Pune-based home category specialty mall—brought yet another international brand to India—Index Living Mall (ILM). The first store under the exclusive franchise agreement with the Thailand-based furniture and furnishings major is based at the mall premises and commands the entire left wing on the ground floor of the main mall building.

The 32,000 sq. ft. store will open to the public at the end of this month and will stock 6,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs). Founded by Pisit Patamasatyasonthi in 2002 as a small business manufacturing just two types of chairs, ILM has grown into Thailand's largest furniture brand, operating over 32 big box retail stores across the country and selling about 12,000 SKUs. The brand is also present in six other countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, The Maldives and Nepal) with 14 stores trading with a further 2 stores opening before the end of this year. The company manufactures its own products and has 10 sub-brands, each catering to a different customer profile and price range.

The collaboration is the culmination of almost a decade-long courtship by Creaticity CEO Mahesh M and is based on several shared synergies between the two organisations, the CEO shared during the store's soft launch.

In an exclusive interaction with IMAGES Retail Mahesh M, along with Gerard McGurk speaks about the collaboration, India strategy and more...

ILM claims to be number one in Thailand. Is it in terms of size, revenue or number of stores?