So Avinash, I cover this in the first part, which strongly focuses on design - both of IKEA and that of Indian players. Should have some answers there. Apart from this, it appears as though IKEA in India is going to do *some* things differently - like tie-up with Urban Clap to do assembly for you, but nothing significantly different to begin with. It's very, very hard to predict if companies need to Indianise their offering. IKEA's global range is surprisingly consistent, and it seems to work well for them.

Praveen Krishnan

Shreya, IMO what you say is correct for commodities. If I know that a packet of milk is Rs. 30, I will be suspicious of anyone who sells it at Rs. 2, and because I am not hipster, I will ignore brands at FoodHall which sell them at Rs. 100. My argument is that this is inverted for lifestyle brands. Take apparel, for instance. If you wish to buy a nice shirt, you may have benchmarked in your head that a good, decent shirt is at Rs. 2000. You will then ignore brands which sell them for Rs. 500, and will be deeply suspicious of brands which have price points of Rs. 4000. I believe this is that this is what will happen with furniture. Does this make sense? Agree? Disagree?

Praveen Krishnan

Yes! I had a lot of reporting done in the interior market as well. Companies like LivSpace, HomeLane etc. There's a lot of optimism there that IKEA will woo these players and find its way into the Indian consumer's house. But the flip side is that there's a strong intuition that consumers will prefer solid wood. So perhaps IKEA will lose out. IKEA does seem to have a gameplan for interiors though. Time will tell.

Praveen Krishnan

Hi Venkatarangan: Thanks for the feedback. Not one of the local players you mention are in the same revenue bracket as these players. JFK is a manufacturer who is also getting into retail. Not really a like-to-like comparison. At any event, the purpose of this is not to do an exhaustive run-through of all players. In fact, forget local players, I hardly even mentioned Damro or HomeTown - both 400cr companies and arguably more influential companies. Going into all these companies will make it a seventeen part series. Soon. Maybe.

Praveen Krishnan

Absolutely Gagan. Not suggesting that all this is going to happen overnight. Will take time. My larger point is that it will introduce the idea of a brand into a customer's mind. That's about it. There's really no precedent for this in any other sector and industry. Maybe automobiles in India in the mid-90s. That's the closest, but somewhat imperfect analogy that works.

Praveen Krishnan

Hi Ankur. Yes, Durian is definitely a key player. Probably falls in Tier 2. Solid company. But honestly, didn't have the time and space to go into too much detail into all players. Maybe in the future.

Praveen Krishnan

Yes, I tend to agree that it's a long-shot. Primary data was impossible to get, so it's presented as a hypothesis than a fact in itself.

Praveen Krishnan

Hi Prashanth. Thanks for the kind words. Honestly, wanted to write a lot more, especially about vendors, and the entire import-export market around solid wood, rubberwood etc. Maybe in a future story someday. I totally agree on the cynicism around new products. Enough people keep saying, 'India is a special market. Things that work in US or China won't work here'. Been hearing it for years. But very few concrete examples of that actually happening.

Praveen Krishnan

I think a merger is hard game. Don't see it happening. But some consolidation will happen, I think.

Praveen Krishnan

Thanks Shikher for the kind words. Let me email you separately on the illustrations.

Praveen Krishnan

Thanks Fakhruddin. Yes, will cover some of this in Part 2.

Praveen Krishnan

Oops. You are correct. I can't believe I got that wrong. Will correct. Thanks Amit.

Praveen Krishnan