Stanley Lifestyles eyes US, Europe for expansion

Stanley Lifestyles, a Bengaluru-based maker of premium furniture and home decor products, has diversified into premium leather bags and shoes as part of its derisking strategy.

“The automobile industry slowdown has impacted our car upholstery business severely resulting in 30% decline in revenues this year. So, we decided to expand our product portfolio and launched leather bags and shoes,” the company’s chairman and managing director Sunil Suresh told DH.

He said the company has just opened its first new-gen retail outlet in Bengaluru under the brand ‘Stanley Level Next’. It plans to retail leather bags and shoes through Stanley Level Next outlets, while other products like sofas and mattresses will be retailed through ‘Sofas & More’ stores, he said.

The company plans to open five more Stanley Level Next outlets with an investment of Rs 20 crore during the next fiscal. It also plans to expand its omnichannel mid-segment furniture outlets branded as ‘Sofas & More’, from the present 7 stores to 60 stores with an investment of Rs 50 crore in the next two years.

As part of its expansion strategy, Stanley Lifestyles is also entering overseas markets through Swedish retail giant Ikea. “We are currently supplying 100,000 sofa seaters to Ikea annually. We will increase it to 300,000 sofa seaters per annum by 2021. Going forward our exports will be expanded from West Asia and Eastern Europe to many other countries,” Suresh said.

Currently, the company is exporting Rs 40 crore worth of furniture and aims to increase it to Rs 110 crore by end of FY21. It will mainly export fabric and imitation leather sofas to Ikea.

Stanley Lifestyles, which started operations in 1996 with contracts to supply car seat covers to General Motors, has now expanded to complete home solutions starting from kitchen cabinets to bedroom solutions like mattresses, wardrobes and living room solutions like sofas and recliners among others.

“Our aim is to provide complete home solutions. Anyone investing more than Rs 1 crore on a new house can get the home solutions starting from kitchen to bedroom and living rooms from us. We have products for the entire house from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 70 lakh,” Suresh said.

Expansion of capacity

Committed to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Stanley plans to expand its 3.5 lakh sq. feet manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, with an additional 2 lakh sq. feet to meet the growing demand and looks to increase its employee base from 1,200 to 5,000 in the next five years. The company has commissioned two new factories in 2019, one for kitchen and wardrobes and the other for premium mattress and bedding, with an investment of Rs 15 crore, he said.

Stanley is present across 20 exclusive stores and 30 sales points in 10 Indian cities, which include Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi. It plans to grow further into major metros this year. Once the expansion into domestic and export markets is completed, Stanley aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 700 crore by FY25 from its current sales of Rs 360 crore, he added.

A pioneer in premium leather sofas in India, Stanley Lifestyles has also opened the country’s largest multi-brand anchor store – ‘Global Living Emporio’.

It is spread across an area of 1,00,000 sq. feet with 5 floors and houses over 40 internationally renowned furniture brands. It offers premium luxury furniture designs, kitchens, and wardrobes for every aspect of the home. Stanley’s wide portfolio also includes – ‘Stanley Boutique’, its legacy stores that primarily sell sofas and recliners.

Overseas acquisition

Stanley Lifestyles is also looking at acquiring retail and wholesale outlets in countries like Germany, the UK, Canada and America for expanding its overseas operations. It plans to manufacture products in Bengaluru and export to these countries.

“The current market opportunity in these countries is in excess of $100 billion and they are dependent on China for manufacturing. We want to acquire some of those premium retail outlets and supply our products made in Bengaluru,” Suresh added.