Danish retailers are throwing themselves at Mumbai
Danish BoConcept is opening the first of eight planned stores in India. New shopping malls and luxury stores for Indian customers with purchasing power are popping up in the Indian cities.
- In 2009 more Danish companies realized the potential of the Indian market. With its approximately 1.1 billion inhabitants and a middle class the size of the US, India should be an attractive mass of customers for most companies, says DI’s man in India, Ejvind Vøgg.
Mumbai corresponds to the inhabitants in the northern countries
Just look at India’s financial capital, Mumbai, where, unofficially, more than 20 million people live. It would correspond to gathering all the inhabitants in the northern countries in just one third of Funen.
This vast market has whetted the appetite of the Danish producer of furniture, BoConcept A/S. Within the next couple of months, BoConcept will open a store in Mumbai’s new and very impressive mall, Palladium.
A promising market
- For a long time, we have known that India is a promising market, and we have great expectations to our plans, says BoConcept’s manager of the new store in Mumbai, Torben Eggertsen.
We feel that the Indian consumer, who is affected daily by Western designs from TV, movies and the Internet, and who is concurrently travelling far more to our part of the world, is now ready to get the Danish design into their living rooms.
Seven new stores are on their way
With regard to prices, we are definitely more expensive than our Indian counterparts, though we have seen examples on Indians willing to pay more for the right and unique design. Besides Mumbai, we also have ambitions to open another seven stores in Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
Airport as in Singapore
- It is a privilege to experience what the city and country are currently undergoing, says Ejvind Vøgg, DI’s man in Mumbai.
Every time I have been away, something new has happened. Within the last year alone, the international airport has been thoroughly renovated. What previously looked like a train station in South-Ossetia is now an airport as we know them from Singapore and Shanghai with luxurious stores, lounges, and franchises.
The same is the case of the new shopping malls, where BoConcept is opening their stores. It is something completely new in India, and somewhat comparable to the marble coated shopping malls in Dubai. The airport and the new malls are small, but very visible indicators of the way things are going in India, says Ejvind Vøgg.
8 December 2009