Mr. Daveed Kuruvilla, Director, Restolex Coir Products Pvt. Ltd.
argues how consumer awareness, better cash flows, capital growth, fresh innovations and more dialogue can elevate the industry on many levels
Q What are your plans for this year as the third wave plateaus and business comes back on revival mode?
We’ve had a strong H2 for 2021 bringing a positive end to a year that looked grim due to the second wave of Covid. Our sales records were breached consecutively month on month up until December, so our plans for this year involve adding more capacity to our production. We’re starting a new factory in the coming months and we’ve ordered additional lines of machinery to double our current capacity.
Q Does the industry need to collaborate on some areas to address some core problems or opportunities?
Collaboration is certainly helpful, being in the same industry, we’re bound to come across similar problems and opportunities. Positive collaboration will promote healthy competition and there are many areas where brands can work together to help our industry grow stronger. For instance, credit is something we’re used to, collaborating on trade receivables and stopping supply to parties with outstanding issues can improve cash flow across the board. Brands can work together on pricing, when raw material prices fluctuate drastically like they have over the last two years, coordinating price changes will keep our bottom lines healthy. Creating awareness about the importance of good sleep for good health is vital, this is something everyone benefits from – be it the customer or the company. High consumer awareness around our industry is what will lead to a healthier population along with market growth
Q What impetus would the Budget provisions and directions give to your industry?
This year’s budget comes with the promise of growth and strong commitments for capital expenditure. If this can create a strong consumer market then the benefits will be felt by our industry through an increased demand for branded mattresses and consumers who’re willing to invest more in sleep. This is what we hope will be a by-product of the budget.
Q Any new market offerings or innovations you intend to explore soon?
We’ve been conducting a study wherein we track the sleep parameters of an individual across multiple mattresses to fine-tune our product mix. We’ve given selected employees a sleep tracker along with a mattress we wish to study. We measure their sleep quality and alter the specifications of the mattress to get the best possible readings. We’ve been sampling different types of foam paired with varying base materials such as coir, Bonnell and pocketed springs. We’re soon going to collate this data and implement our findings in our mattresses as a part of an R&D process which will be a constant.