BANGALORE, India — India Indian furnishing markets already subdued from last 18 months, the trade and suppliers wait and aspire for a better time are ahead. Since mid-2015 the oversupply situation has not improved but has worsened in the year 2017.  The real estate markets are depressed and have contracted after demonetisation in November 2016 will take a longer time to normalize. Sales of new homes saw the biggest dip while select segments like IT, retail, office space, consulting and e-commerce have registered a positive demand for office space in West and South of India. ‘Adding to subdued marketing conditions, over supply of furnishing fabrics has indeed increased this year further and we don’t see any major positives in 2017’, says Mahendra Jain, of Mahendra Furnishings, Bangalore,  distributor of leading mills in India since 1993. Mahendra Furnishings inventories are increasing, profit margins are under pressure due to supply gut and retailers are taking the advantage as it has turned to buyers’ market. ‘Our business a year ago will be maintained this year also but meter wise sales will be static or may improve slightly’, he added. Though Indian markets by large is growing the furnishing fabrics marketing is becoming complex. It is becoming increasingly common to suppliers to offer multi-distribution channels apart from their own direct distribution showing desperation, he added. Manufacturers have to run the mill with acceptable capacity utilization to earn a profit as well the trade partners such as wholesalers and retailers have to earn a reasonable profit. ‘Number of retail outlets are growing across India and markets are becoming regional in terms of buying habits  as urbanization of all major Indian cities are facing with severe traffic congestion’, expressed Beni Gopal Choudhary, Owner, Skipper Furnishings, Bangalore, India. Skipper Furnishings caters to middle, high end consumers, architects and Designers. Number of retailers have multiplied in the  last 3 years  and customers prefer to buy near their localities as driving and getting back to big show rooms that are in the city central districts is terrible unless the customer is too keen to see a large collection, added Gopal. Importantly, the major issue is how many sample books can be kept for a season? According to trade sources, it is a pain and harassment as Indian companies bring in sample books every 3 months and sometimes up to 30-100 books each quarter and in festival seasons ‘ Our sales staff in the show room always prefer to show fast moving collections and it is practically impossible to show all the collections in the limited time available as customers prefer to conclude selections quickly too’, added Gopal. Thus many sample books are never shown and inventories add up: But new collections with minor design changes keeps accumulating. Unless this craze by Indian suppliers to offer 100’s of sample books do not stop, this unnecessary burden on the trade community. Also supplying companies will have a mammoth task of selling the unsold stocks as surplus and stock lots, he added (some suppliers are already compelled to appoint special wholesalers to get rid of such stocks at 50% or more discount)..  ‘We are now  seriously thinking to make our own select sample books to reduce our expenses and clearing the storage space from unwanted sample book scarps’, commented  Gopal. Since 2 years It has been a difficult situation to Indian manufacturers and all efforts are made to keep the capacity utilization at its best. ‘I see a major change from Indian suppliers who are adopting sale of fabrics as cut length suppliers directly across Pan-India and have expanded  their business  by avoiding wholesalers or any sort of middle man’, observes Mandeep Singh Wadhwa, Managing Director, Seasons Furnishings Ltd, New Delhi, Manufacturers as well as leading retailers of luxury Furnishings lines both Indian and imported lines. While this has been helpful to suppliers the intelligent buyer has understood the selling  desperation and has wide range of similar goods from many suppliers  to be purchased at bargained price thus adding to severe competition in the market place, he added. Further it is very unusual way that Indian suppliers  each offering  over 50-100 collections a year instead a normal offering of 7-12 collections a year in the Western markets., Seasons Furnishings for this year expects 6% growth in retail and its wholesale business will continue to dip. The company is in final stages of making a new strategy to market by extending customer-end solutions by tying up with architects and designers for middle and high end customer’s especially new home buyers as well re-furbishing of existing homes.   –by Vishwanath.S