Clover Leaf, the new franchisee in New Delhi for Alno Kitchens, has set up a 3,800-sft showroom at Okhla Phase-I. “We have been a distributor of kitchen appliances for three years through our sister concern Tulip Business Associates. Therefore, it was logical for us to get into the business of modular kitchens,” informed Clover Leaf’s director Sanjay Kumar Khanna (sanjaykumarkhanna@hotmail.com), in an exclusive interaction with Sourcing Hardware. Khanna shared that Tulip is a distributor for Nagold built-in appliances which are marketed in India by Hafele, and has a showroom on M G Road. “Partnering Alno Kitchens as their franchisee is a sort of backward integration for us,” he reiterated.
Explaining the reasons for moving to the retail side of, Khanna said that B2C offered relatively higher margins in the kitchen sector. “We have been toying with the idea of getting into the modular kitchen space for the past one year. However, it has taken us nearly six months to zero down on potential brands to partner with. A majority of the kitchen brands that are present in the market do not have their own manufacturing capabilities. We were determined to associate only with a brand that had a strong manufacturing base.” Clover Leaf finally identified Alno. “We did our research and found that Alno had a considerable brand recall. We went to their Bengaluru unit and saw for ourselves how their production was organised. The passion and focus of the people at Alno is what struck us. There were three rounds of meetings before we sealed our partnership.”
The Clover Leaf showroom displays kitchens, wardrobes and vanities; there are nine kitchens on display. “We have different zones for kitchens,” he said, explaining that there are three kitchens of Interwood Plus on display, three kitchens of Alno, two of Interwood and one of Impulse. Impulse is an entry-level German brand. The hardware is from Peka, Salice and Blum, while the appliances are from Nagold, Esco and Liebherr. The prices of the kitchens range between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.
According to Khanna, since kitchen is not an over-the-counter product but a customised product, a pull strategy has to be employed by retailers to attract customers. “We have given ourselves a window of six months to create the basic awareness and visibility. However, in the one month since we launched, we have been able to close five deals and this is a good beginning.”
Alno Kitchens Gets Clover Leaf as Delhi Franchisee
