Get near to profits with Sonear

Sonear, earlier known as Donear manufactures plywood and laminates doors for the Indian customers since 1988. In an interaction with Rita G Chauhan, Jitendra Kejriwal, Chairman and Managing Director, Sonear Industries talks about the company’s growth and its expansion plans.

Kindly share with us the inception and growth of your company.

We started in 1988, in Araria, Bihar with the commercial plywood. Over a period of time, we gained experience and some valuable insights about the market and started our own factory and became the pioneer in decorative plywood category.  Today we have a diverse portfolio of products in the infrastructure and fashion space and our products are available across the country.

According to you, what are the factors that drive the growth of this industry?

The industry has undergone a change with urbanisation, real estate development and the desire to have luxury homes. To create a distinction, consumers are increasingly looking out for unique home décor ideas. They want innovation in laminates and veneers as well. Their aspiration witnesses a healthy growth.

Which cities are you planning to expand your brand?

Today Sonear is available with over 2100 dealers across India. We have witnessed a good demand in tier-II cities, like Ahmedabad, Indore, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Siliguri, owing to high rate of savings. We are planning to reach out to tier III cities as well and our focus is to seek dealers in cities like Vellore, Vijaywada, Vizac, Rajmundri etc.

How feasible is a dealer/distributor model for your business? Do you prefer someone with prior experience in same field?

The dealer/distributor model is highly feasible for our business as we are not always able to have our own warehouse in every city. It is very important that our dealer/distributor have a combination of good knowledge and have prior experience in the home furnishing market.

What are the requisites of being your partner in terms of investment, area and location?

Our channel partners like dealers and distributors need to have a fair amount of area to display our product range and stock them as well. They should have sound financial backing and good skills to keep relationship with all our customers, carpenters, contractor or an architect the main pillars of our business.

What kind of training and support you offer your partners?

We believe in honest and open communications and provide different platforms for sharing ideas to all our partners. We provide training and support at all levels. We regularly hold dealers’ meet where we exchange ideas and get their feedback. Trips to the factories are regularly organised to showcase the use of new technology and machinery to all our dealers. Besides, brand books and catalogues are given to all dealers for improving their knowledge about our products.

What challenges you are facing in maintaining the logistics of your products?

We are primarily based in North, so transportation of material is the biggest challenge to us especially when we deal in south and eastern India.

What is the USP of your brand?

We stand for quality. Today we have managed to offer and create a diverse portfolio which caters to varied markets and all kinds of customers. Besides, our varied price range from Rs 30 to Rs 600 per sq. ft suits to the customer of all segments.