H2F
US buyers seem positive …!
Indicate increase in sourcing of home furnishing from India
The 45th edition of India Handicrafts and Gifts Fair( IHGF) – Delhi Fair Spring 2018 – organized by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts( EPCH), as usual witnessed visitation from large number of overseas and domestic buyers, top retailers and buying agents. Many of them were keen to explore home furnishing products( soft goods) put on display by nearly 480 Indian home furnishing exporters. Apparel Online met some of the interesting buyers at the fair and discussed the business scenario, their strategy, future plans and allied aspects of sourcing home fashion products from India. It is a good sign for India that US-based wholesalers / importers seem positive about their business and they are looking to increase home furnishing sourcing from India.
With regard to US-based buyers, the good thing is that new companies are now exploring India and many of them were happy with the overall offerings that they found at the fair. Established importers too are adding new product categories. Some of the product categories are coming back to Indian market and few others are doing well. For example, medium and high-end market segment is coming back to India for more luxury items, organicbased products. Buyers are very optimistic about India, and specially in comparison to China. Few buyers also say that Indian exporters’ ways of approaching customers is definitely much better than that of the Chinese, and this is a positive way to get more business.
It has been widely reported in recent times that Chinese companies have increased their focus on product development, designs which is another issue for Indians. However, many buyers do not agree to the same, though experts feel that in some product categories like table tops, China has grabbed a big share of India.
Dealing with a large variety of different kinds of soft and hard goods, Boston International, Massachusetts, a distribution company started sourcing home furnishing product, from India just a year and half ago. The company also explored China for the same as it has strong know-how of China and has been sourcing from there. But a top official( names have not been shared on buyers’ request) of the company found India more interesting in few aspects.“ Our customers expect a lot of variety from us which is a challenge. Chinese are not good in Americanised art, so in China we were not getting variety of artwork and detailing that could keep our customers interested, so we explored India for textiles and right from the start, Indian designs did very well for us. Printing and overall quality in Indian products is very good and consistent,” she informed, adding that in shade variation also, India is better than China, as they do not find this problem in India. For a year, her team keenly observed customers’ response to Indian products and finally they decided to visit India and work more deeply with Indian companies.
Senior team of Boston International
Deven Saxena( L) MD, Charu Merchandising with Lokesh Parashar of Buying Agents Association
Growth: Boston International, Massachusetts which grew by 12 per cent last year, is expecting similar growth( 10 to 12 per cent) this year too. India’ s Heritage is also doing well and the current year also looks good for them. The company’ s business has grown consistently year-on-year.
Top representative from Retail Strategy
Currently the company is sourcing kitchen and table linen from India and in a year, it has sourced more than US $ 1,00,000 worth of products and is expecting 40 to 50 per cent growth in the same. She is of the view that delivery timing is the only issue where Indian exporters need to improve a little.
There are some other buyers who are still banking on India’ s differential strength, yet are spreading their sourcing into other countries to add more value in their offering. However, their first priority is still India and they too are looking at increasing their sourcing from India. India’ s Heritage, New Jersey working for almost 20 years in India, is properly utilizing the strengths of most Indian hubs and is trying to expose these strengths to various international clients of the US market.“ We do products that are traditional, transitional, contemporary, and
28 Apparel Online India | MARCH 1-15, 2018 | www. apparelresources. com