ET Now: Are there any new trends in the market?
Amit Syngle: One of the big trends we’ve seen is that people’s involvement with the home has gone up, they’re trying to do small tit-bits in terms of DIY trends, small repairs, decorating their home spaces and making their own corners. We’ve also found that today spaces have become multifunctional in nature and therefore flexibility is the need of the hour, in terms of what people see, because that is something the situation demands.
Another trend is the homes have become big spaces for socialisation, with people hanging out more at home rather than venturing out to a restaurant or a mall. They feel safe and more comfortable in their home, which is our range brings to their lives far more colour and a designer kind of collection which will really embellish homes in a different way. This is really a category disruptor because now
is not only about walls, we are about the space between the walls too.
ET Now: A second lockdown is seemingly on the cards, how has that impacted demand?
Amit Syngle: While the situation in Maharashtra is not looking great and there are other states seeing rising cases, the heartening part is the strong stream of vaccinations across the country. Hopefully the increase is short lived.
We’re still pretty buoyant about demand in the market and feel that this is a transitional phase – one that we’re coming into – that’ll be over; it is a matter of time that markets should reopen and we’ll return to the old state of demand.
ET Now: Give us a sense as what are some of the other challenges that the company is facing?
Amit Syngle: Inflation has been very high and we have been seeing strong inflation trends from December in Q3 and Q4. We have been watching the market, and will see how prices stabilise, because overall inflation levels have been pretty high and we have taken some steps to address this. We have announced a small price increase in the market. We’re watching the environment and we will keep on taking certain steps so that we can keep the inflation trends at bay and also figure out how we are able to work in terms of our costing and savings so that we are not passing everything to the consumer.
ET Now: Given that it has been a year into lockdown that, we’re sure you have learned some very crucial lessons, what would those have been for the business and for the company?
Amit Syngle: So one of the strong things which we have kind of seen is that whatever be the situation, staying glued to your stakeholders very strongly – be it your customer, your retailer, your influencers or your employees – is important. As long as you’ve got your ears tuned to what the stakeholders are saying, you’re taking the right path.