In India, kitchen furniture is still manufactured mainly from bespoke handcrafts but, more and more, kitchen furniture manufactured according to international standards are on demand. In comparison: in Italy around 600 thousands kitchens are sold every year, and more than one million in Germany. The Chinese market, more comparable with India as for demographics, absorbs every year some millions of new kitchen furniture.
The kitchen furniture market in India for the year 2020, as estimated by CSIL, was equal to 300 thousand units and 540 million USD in value (factory prices). So, there is plenty of space for growth, from actual 300 thousand units to, let’s say, a couple of millions of units per year.
From 2013 to 2019, the market increased from 200-250 thousand units, to over 300 thousand units.
Decrease during 2020 affected mainly the lower end of the market and imported units.
On an average, a kitchen manufacturer produces approximately 60% of kitchen furniture and (as an average, ranging usually from 20% to 60%) 40% living furniture (less frequently bathroom, doors or other furniture).
Kitchen furniture sector in India is distributed mainly by specialized stores, frequently monobrand. Their market share is stable around 50%.
Top players
Market leader is Sleek Kitchens, with around 450 dealers across India, including 30 owned show rooms, 300 independent dealers and 170 retailers managed by big chains (At Home, Durian, Home Stop, Hyper City). Sleek has its own range of kitchen appliances.
Godrej Interio is the furniture division of the Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited. This company has more than 56 showrooms in 20 cities in India and 800 dealer outlets across India.
Spacewood has a pan- India presence, which includes over 350 dealers and 17 company owned stores.
Indoline started in 1989 as a subsidiary of the Al Huzaifa Group, a Dubai-based firm with multiple interests in Nashik, Maharashtra. Starting off as an interest in customised furniture, Indoline over the decades has grown into a leading modular furniture manufacturing company of India.
Livspace is a start-up company that began its operations in 2015 and offers complete home interior solutions under one roof bringing together buyers, designers and suppliers.
Interwood is a mid-sized furniture company specializing in kitchens and wardrobes.It plays in the upper end.
The upper end of the Indian kitchen furniture market (units over.3 lakh factory and 9 lakh retail prices) is worth around 20,000 kitchens (6% in quantity and18% in market value).
Foreign brands hold around 70% of the upper end market and the 100% of the luxury segment.
Kitchens priced 2-3 lakh at factory price (6-9 lakh retail, included appliances) are approximately 50,000 (17% in quantity, 30% market share in value).
Godrej Interio, Spacewood and Sleek are the main players in the middle end of the market.
Pepperfry works in the lower end. It has 60 mentioned showrooms.
Saviesa works mainly with builders and is mainly represented in the Mumbai region. It works mainly in the lower end, with complete projects as for kitchen and home furniture. 45 mentioned stores in New Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Punjab.
Lighting for kitchen furniture
Before LEDs, heating from conventional sources did not allow to insert lighting elements inside a drawer, or under a cabinet. Lighting becomes a structural component of a modular kitchen furniture in Europe some ten years, and more recently also in the United States.
Most used products include downlights (more traditional) and (more fashionable) linear lighting, frequently undercabinet.
Till some years ago, in Europe, lighting was used mainly from Italian and German manufacturers, in the middle and upper end. Today, the large majority of European kitchens include lighting elements that on an average weight around 3% on the price of the kitchen.
So, the potential market for built-in lighting inside Indian kitchen furniture (around 300 thousand units sold yearly…..amount definitely going to grow) is somewhat as 15 million USD.
Aurelio Volpe
The author is from Csil.