Schüller expands India channel presence in premium kitchens through Tier 2 growth,
architect-led demand and franchise partnerships in India.
When Sanjay Bhatia entered the modular kitchen business in 2004, the Indian market was still thinly organised. At one end were highly expensive offerings; at the other, lower-grade execution. “There was no one to cater to the mid-segment,” he recalls. That gap led him to leave architectural practice, start Radiance Kitchens, and gradually build manufacturing capability. Later, as imported kitchens began gaining aspirational pull, he launched RR Living to address the premium end of the market.
Today, RR Living is the India partner for German kitchen maker Schüller and its luxury line
Next125. The partnership, signed in 2020 and operationally accelerated after the pandemic, has helped RR Living create a network of nine showrooms across India and build a business that Bhatia says is now generating around ₹35–40 crore annually. The company is targeting 25 percent yearly growth, with further expansion likely to come through a mix of Tier 2 showrooms, architect-led demand, and project business in premium housing.
As Schuller expands India presence, what makes its channel offer relevant is not simply that it is a European kitchen brand. It is that it’s India distributor RR Living is building a disciplined franchise business that depends on support, service credibility, and careful market selection rather than mere badge value.
Why Schüller, and Why Now?
Bhatia’s choice of Schüller appears to have been shaped as much by past experience as by
market opportunity. Before Schüller, RR Living had worked with another German brand
whose operations shut down after the company went bankrupt. That episode clearly influenced Bhatia’s criteria for selecting the next partner. “Our first tick point was that the
company should be debt-free,” he says.
The second filter was product strength. RR Living wanted a partner that could offer something not easily replicated in India, whether in manufacturing precision, finish quality,
or systems integration. The third was showability: the ability to take architects, designers,
and developers to Germany and present a manufacturing and design ecosystem that would
justify the premium.
In Schüller, Bhatia found a fit on all three counts. He highlights its scale, debt-free structure, and dual-brand architecture. “They are one of the largest kitchen manufacturers in the world, producing almost 700–800 kitchens a day,” he says. “They work in two variants. There is Schüller, and there is Next125. So, they kind of cater to two market segments.”
That two-tier structure is strategically important. In the Indian market, many brands tend to be known either for premium or for luxury. RR Living’s argument is that Schüller and
Next125 together allow it to span both. “We are the only one who cater to premium and
luxury,” says Bhatia. The point is less about claiming uniqueness in absolute terms and more about how the company is framing its offer to franchisees and customers: one network, two price bands, broader market coverage.
The German Advantage: Not Just Prestige, but Process
Imported kitchens in India are often marketed through aesthetics, European identity, and
lifestyle appeal. What comes through more strongly in this interview, however, is Bhatia’s
emphasis on process discipline.
RR Living does not manufacture Schüller kitchens in India. “When we are doing Schüller, the entire kitchen is manufactured in Germany,” he says. “It comes in the name of the
customer… all boxed, packed, all barcoded, and we open the kitchen at the client’s site.”
That creates obvious challenges, especially around transit damage, lead times, and
regulatory uncertainty. But it also gives RR Living a sharper proposition around accuracy and repeatability. Bhatia repeatedly returns to finish quality, production scale, and the rigid, pre-engineered nature of the product. “The finishes that we can give in a Schüller kitchen is, for now, not possible, or not at a level of precision that Germans are manufacturing,” he says.
The same logic extends to customisation. Indian manufacturers can often offer a far wider
range of made-to-order finishes, but Bhatia argues that unlimited choice creates long-term
service complications. Schüller’s narrower palette, by contrast, makes it easier to replicate
and replace surfaces years later. “If I want to replace the same product 5–7 years down the
line, we can’t always source the same product,” he says of open-ended local customisation.
“But these guys can do that, because they have only 30 colours, they don’t have 5,000
colours.”
This is one of the more useful insights in the interview. It reframes limited customisation not as a weakness, but as a service design choice tied to lifecycle reliability.
Where the Real Business Comes From
RR Living’s current network spans both Tier 1 and Tier 2 locations, with two of its nine
showrooms in Tier 2 markets and more likely to follow. The next 4–5 showrooms are
expected over two years, with Bhatia openly favouring smaller cities. “We’re now focusing
on Tier 2 because of the growth that we see there… there’re a lot of aspirational clients in
Tier 2 cities who want to invest in good imported kitchens,” he says.
The attraction is not only rising affluence, but lower competitive clutter and first-mover
advantage in some markets. At the same time, RR Living is careful not to expand too quickly. A showroom takes six to seven months to design, import, fit out, and operationalise, which is why the company aims for only two to three openings a year.
The model is also more dependent on the design community than on retail footfall. “Most of
our work comes from design professionals. We normally would never get a walk-in,” says Bhatia. That admission matters. It tells prospective channel partners that this is not a mass
retail play; it is a relationship-led premium business in which architects and interior
designers are the primary demand engine.
RR Living’s support structure as Schüller expands India presence reflects that reality. It
designs the showroom, decides what mix of displays will suit each city, trains designers and
site teams in Pune, supports local business generation, and takes architects to Germany. The standard showroom size is 1,800–2,500 sq ft, with three Schüller kitchens and two Next125 kitchens on display, sometimes alongside laundry systems or wardrobes depending on local demand. South and West Indian markets, for instance, are seeing more acceptance for integrated laundry units than North India.
The investment required is about ₹70 lakh to ₹1 crore, depending on city and format. Bhatia also indicated a trade margin in the range of 50–60 percent between distributor and dealer level, though he clarified that this is not the same as net profit and that discounts to
customers affect the final picture.
Service as Brand-building, Not Backend Support
For a distributed imported-kitchen business, service is not an afterthought; it is the brand.
RR Living stocks certain German panels locally and can fabricate replacement cabinetry parts in India if something is damaged during transit or installation. Doors, if damaged, may need to come from Germany, but the company keeps enough inventory to respond quickly. “If there is a damage during transit or during installation… we make a new panel and send it,” says Bhatia.
It also builds service commitments into the offer: deep cleaning and pest control at handover, a two-year AMC with six-month inspection cycles, and replacement support in
the first five years for certain components such as doors and furniture lighting. “If anything
happens in the first five years to the kitchen, we replace it for free,” he says.
That sort of assurance matters in a market where imported products are often admired
upfront but doubted on after-sales reliability.
Projects May Become the Next Growth Engine
Beyond the franchise network, RR Living is seeing growing traction in residential projects,
especially premium developments in Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru. Bhatia says builders
increasingly see value in offering a German kitchen as a project differentiator. “It gives them an edge over other competition,” he says. “Overall, it doesn’t increase the cost of the
apartment so much, but then the end customer gets a fully fitted German kitchen.”
This project business could become a meaningful parallel channel for RR Living, especially as premium housing expands and developers look for ready-made value additions that signal quality without forcing a complete premium repositioning of the apartment.
The Offer, in Perspective
RR Living’s channel offer ensuring that Schüller expands India presence is not a volume-led
franchise play. It is a relatively high-investment, slower-build, design-led distribution model
built around a premium European kitchen system. Its strengths lie in product precision, a
two-tier brand structure, architect engagement, and service discipline. Its risks remain
familiar: logistics, regulation, and the need for sustained brand-building in a market where
early entrants have had more time to shape perception.
Bhatia is realistic on that front. “Brand building is a long-term process. It’s not easy. It’s
going to take its own time,” he says.
That may be the most credible line in the conversation. It suggests RR Living understands
that in premium kitchens, the channel is not built merely through appointments and
brochures. It is built through trust, process, and patient market development.
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