UK-based sliding door system specialist Coburn Sliding Systems will add 25 new channel partners in the coming two years. Kolkata-based Shubham International is Coburn’s distributor for India. In an exclusive interaction with Sourcing Hardware, Shubham’s director Jitesh Kothari (jitesh@rachardware.in) said, “We have a reasonably good network in the west and south India; the focus now is to increase our presence in the north and central India.” Coburn has 23 network partners at present, through whom it markets sliding and folding door gear systems for external doors, glass doors, and wardrobe sliding doors.

“Our focus will be the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi in the north, and Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh in central India. We are planning to appoint around 25 partners in these markets,” informed Kothari. As for east India, Kothari maintained that since Shubham is based in Kolkata the demand is met from its head office. “We are looking at these markets as the new growth frontiers,” he said, adding that the existing network partners are the ones who deal with products of many other global brands. “As we seek to add more partners in new markets, we are looking for people in the trade with goodwill and a knack of selling branded products,” he remarked.

Coburn has recently launched a design centre in Mumbai and is planning to add more in other locations. “We’ve just inaugurated an exclusive design centre in Mumbai and plans are afoot to launch two to three more such centres,” informed Kothari. He added that Coburn introduces new products on a quarterly basis. “In November we launched two new products, and the next launches will be seen in January 2019.”