Vikas Kesarkar, Vice President- Marketing, Classic Marble Company, talks about future plans of his company and how they handle competition from your organized and unorganized counterparts
Tell us about your company and core competencies?
Classic Marble Company (CMC), the connoisseurs of the imported marble industry in India have maintained their number one status as the Czarbles of the marble trade in the country. CMC began its operations in 1994 and in this journey of twenty years achieved many landmarks. Today, we are an Rs. 400 crore company with employee strength of more than 900 people. We have four state-of-the-art factories in Silvassa spread over 500,000 sq.mt. that produces Natural Marble, Natural Granite, Kalingastone Marble and Quartz. CMC has recently ventured into an exclusive partnership with international tiles majors Levantina and Iris for marketing world’s finest porcelain designs Techlam and Maxfine.
The plant in Silvassa is well equipped with all imported and modern machineries with advanced processing technology which enables formation of top-class quality products. CMC offers over 500 varieties of Natural stones that includes Marble, Onyx, Travertine, Granite and Limestone. All these stones display their distinct characteristics with their exclusive colors and patterns. Sourced from more than forty quarries all over the world, these stones are stocked at CMC’s natural stone gantry yard at Silvassa.
The company’s expertise in the natural stone industry and world-class technology featured at Kalingstone’s factory allow the researchers to innovate stunning range of engineered stones with varied colors, designs and patterns. Kalingastone is the only brand in India that offers an array of over 150 different varieties of engineered marble and quartz.
Today, Kalingastone is exported to over 53 countries across 6 continents, thus making it a preferred choice across the globe. The CMC showrooms in Bhandup, Worli, Silvassa, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Chennai are one-stop-shops for exquisite stones from over 40 countries Italy, Turkey, Spain, Greece, Brazil, USA, Sweden, Norway, Mexico to name a few.
CMC, an ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company is the first stone company in India to supply more than 11 crore sq. ft. of imported marble in the country.
What are the latest products offered by your brand?
The company recently launched a new collection of GenNex engineered marble under its flagship brand Kalingastone. A set of nine rare products, the new marble collection, engineered with imported quality raw materials and by using state of the art imported machinery is expected to mark a new beginning in the sphere of engineered marble.
Inspired by its Italian lineage, the new set of engineered marble have been christened as Nero Portoro, Rosso Levante, Grigio Aurelio, Felini, Mocca Marmo, Luna, Pietra Serina, Grigio Cristallo and Marcello.
What are the market trends for 2016?
The architectural sector is an ever evolving sector and yet, marble has always remained the element of class when a space needs to define opulence. We expect the market to be a lot more inclined towards the engineered stone segment for the coming year. This will mostly be because of the way innovations are being dished out in the colours, designs, patterns and quality of these stones. There is a whole new world of engineered stones that will receive a lot of attention from architects everywhere. From designs that play with the looks of marble in quartz to patterns in book-matching, the engineered category will turn out a winner.
Who are the target audience for your products?
The products offered at CMC are suitable for any types of projects including residential, corporate, hospitality and institutional. Over the years marble has become the most preferred choice among consumers across all segments. The largest market is the residential segment as most builders today have moved on to use of marble. All premium projects across the country are done only with marble, either natural or composite marble. Marble, in its true sense elevates the overall aesthetic value of the entire project due to its uniqueness of designs, colours, natural vein effects, big sizes, easy installation, joint less unlike any other flooring product and re-polishing possibilities. Apart from the residential segment the hospitality segment also dominates the use of marble in India. The elegance, colours and class which marble adds to any application it is used in makes the project very unique.
What are your future plans?
Classic Marble Company has always been an innovator, both in its natural and composite stone segments. The company has a team of professionals that conducts research time to time and introduces variety of products in the market. Recently the company has started additional state of the art quartz production line to produce veined products which are lookalike of natural marble like staturio, venatino, crema marfil etc. The industrial production will be available in the market by January 2016. Also, the company plans to launch new depots in tier 1 tier 2 cities across India.
What strategies do you follow to handle competition from your organized and unorganized counterparts?
Our focus is primarily quality and for this we incorporate systems and material that adhere to international standards. From raw sourcing material to execution of projects we ensure that each step of the process has been thoroughly researched and planned to be accomplished with complete accuracy. A major challenge is installation of our products. From time to time CMC goes out of its way to educate masons with the best techniques and practices used the world over for installations. This has strategically helped us to penetrate the markets as more and more masons have come forward to learning from us and in turn have become our mouthpieces to our potential customers.