Gautier in India to be known as Style Spa World Furniture

Company press release, September 11, 2003

Chennai

Gautier in India, will be known as Style Spa World Furniture from 15th September 2003 to be in line with the global trends and provide global furniture to the global Indian as stated by Mr S K Poddar, Chairman. The new brand was unveiled at Mumbai today by Mr. H S Bawa, Managing Director, Zuari Industries Limited, the main promoters of Gautier India.

Speaking at the Style Spa brand launch, Mr. Arun Mahajan, Managing Director, said, "We are no longer restricting ourselves to French furniture but have incorporated global concepts. We plan to imbibe world trends and create world class designs and styles to suit the taste of discerning customer - the Global Indian."

"We are confident that this launch will mark the beginning of another exciting phase of growth in our operations. We have geared up our systems and logistics management to ensure that we can offer the latest trends in furniture to our customers combined with the best of customer service. Our ultimate objective is to better our own success story and continue to remain the leading retailer of world-class furniture in India," he added.

Reasons for name change

Mr. S K Poddar, Chairman, Gautier India Limited, while dwelling on the reasons for the name change pointed out, "Groupe Seribo with whom we had tied up, was bought over by Gautier France who have their own plans and we have our own plans."

"The second more compelling reason for name change is that we also found it as an opportunity to break away from pre-dominantly French designs based furniture. The market is now offering luxury of choice at all levels - styles, designs and price points. Further the new age customers - globally traveled and well informed have individualistic preferences and have a taste for good living. In this scenario, being perceived as distinctly French would have proved to be severely restricting and too niche," he added.

Further over a period of time the company itself has tremendously improved its designs capability and has successfully introduced the Metro range, designed in house, which combines American functionality, European styling and Indian penchant for space saving.

All the 55 exclusive showrooms of the company will support the Style Spa brand and be christened Style Spa Stores. The company also plans to open style Spa Boutique Stores in Metros. The company will also enhance its product folio to include furnishing & accessories related to furniture to provide the consumer a different shopping experience.

Background

The K K Birla Group entered into a technical collaboration with Groupe Seribo of France (who owned the Gautier brand) in 1996 to manufacture Ready To Assemble French furniture in India. The state-of-the-art plant put up to manufacture 1,60,000 units of furniture per annum, at Kakkalur around 40 k.m. from Chennai, is one of the largest and most modern plants in India. The plant is highly automated and CNC controlled. The machines are imported from Germany, Italy and Spain and the processes adopted and materials used conform to stringent FIRA quality norms of UK and CTBA norms of France.

In 1998, the Gautier brand was launched across India through a network of exclusive outlets and became the first national player of organized retailing of home furniture. It was the time when India was opening up to the concept of home dressing. Today Gautier in India is the market leader in organized furniture retailing. The brand was nurtured carefully for five years and it has become synonymous with exquisite French style, elegance, comfort and practicality. The Gautier range in India comprises bedroom, living room and dinning room furniture which are made available through a countrywide network of 55 outlets including far-flung areas like Guwahati and Siliguri.

For details, contact:

vijayalakshmi.d@rksbbdo.com