Home interior solutions brand, DesignCafe has turned EBITDA profitable in March on the back of focus on improving gross margins and bringing in operational efficiencies. The brand, which has 15 experience centres across 10 cities currently, will next focus on foray into the Delhi-NCR region this year. Overall, the company aims to expand to 20 cities over the next two years.
Gita Ramanan, CEO & Co-Founder, DesignCafe, said the brand’s annual order book run rate stood at ₹300 crore in FY24, up 50 per cent over the previous fiscal. “We have seen a substantial improvement in our EBITDA from -20 per cent to a positive trajectory of 5 per cent for March. Our revenue grew by over 22 per cent year-on-year. We have been focusing on improving our operational efficiencies and bringing down costs supported by our own manufacturing capabilities,” she told businessline.
Ramanan pointed out that the launch of Qarpentri in June 2022 helped make the brand’s services accessible to a broader base of consumers. Qarpentri, is the brand’s modular home interior solutions targeted at aspirational home buyers with upto ₹5-lakh budget.
growth momentum
“We will continue to focus on this growth momentum while operating on a net cash-flow positive basis. We will also expand to the key market of Delhi-NCR region this year with the launch of a couple of stores to strengthen our pan-India presence. At the same time, we will add new experience centres to existing cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. We hope to grow our presence to 20 cities over the next two years,” she added.
The brand has ambitious plans to expand to 40 cities eventually with a fair amount of presence in the tier-2 markets. “The home interior solution is a large segment that is still maturing and the pandemic has hastened this process. We are witnessing strong demand trends in this segment,” Ramanan said.