In an interview with BW People, Mihir Parekh, Executive Director, Nilkamal, talks about the impact and challenges of COVID-19

How has COVID-19 changed the face of the furniture industry? 
Home Furniture is an important and integral part of daily life. However, with Covid-19, the demand for WFH furniture has increased to a great extent. Nilkamal has been very proactive in this area offering a wide range of Work from Home furniture that is essential in this new normal. We are spending more time at home and it is crucial for home furniture to be both functional and practical.
 
Nilkamal’s products are designed keeping in mind the need for saving space and the ease of use, the products are stackable or have additional storage space and are made for easy cleaning and maintenance. Our WFH range offers a variety of tables and chairs that are crafted taking into consideration the body posture, to make the work from home process more seamless.
 
What major steps have been taken by the company to overcome the pandemic situation? 
Nilkamal quickly identified the critical requirement for health infrastructure and developed a range of solutions to help India combat and overcome the pandemic. This range includes a series of Isolation, Quarantine and Quick Covid beds & mattresses that are designed for installation across India’s Covid care centres. These beds are specially designed for patient comfort while delivering high quality at effective costs. Nilkamal also launched VirusGUARD and TravelGUARD partitions to help maintain social distancing in offices, cafeterias, factories and transport such as buses.
 
We have further expanded our office furniture range with Work-from-home solutions including ergonomic seating, efficient storage units and desks.
 
How’s the response to the new category? 
Our innovative product solutions have been widely accepted with over 8000 beds installed in hospitals/ health infrastructure facilities across Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and West Bengal. We have supplied Isolation and Quarantine beds, Mattresses and Bedside Cabinets to multiple government hospitals as well as donated 2000 Quick Covid Beds to the Sardar Patel Covid Centre, Delhi in collaboration with Reliance Foundation.
 
Corporates have given us a very positive response for social distancing solutions such as the VirusGUARD and TravelGUARD. We have installed these across the country at top company facilities for employee safety.
 
How will it benefit the growth of the company? 
Nilkamal continues to be a pioneer and leader when it comes to innovation. Our capabilities span across plastics, metal, MDF and mattress which allows us to quickly respond to market needs and deliver solutions in record time. With 10 factories across the country, we are present very close to the customer, and therefore, able to provide the most cost-effective solutions while maintaining our world-class quality norms.
 
What is the company’s new unlock strategy? 
Digital is and will continue to be our key strategy. Since many years we have been SAP enabled, in which our warehouses, factories and depots are connected through SAP. With the changing environment, we are looking more into online selling, digital marketing and making efforts to improve technology focus, as physical retail and physical selling are shifting to the online platform. Our focus is to make our products available through digital means.  We have further invested in improving our supply chain, warehouses and depots.
 
We are continuously making efforts to adapt to the ever-changing consumer needs and providing innovative product solutions that will be beneficial to the customer in current times.
 
Safety and sanitation will continue being a topmost priority for our consumers, trade and employees.
 
Keeping the current situation in mind, what are furniture’s prospects for 2021? 
The current environment is dynamic and continuously changing to make any kind of future predictions. Furniture is an integral part of everyone’s life. With the current situation, many offices will continue working from home in the near future. People have adapted to this new normal and home improvement is on everyone’s mind. WFH furniture is likely to see a further rise in demand.