A multifaceted personality with a keen love for sports and owner of an eclectic collection of fast motorbikes and luxury cars, Mr. Mistry also discharges his social responsibilities with diligence. He has undertaken several community service projects including renovating an old agiary at Dadar, Mumbai and upgrading and enhancing the ambience of a police station opposite the Cricket Club of India located in the same city.
In this exclusive interview with Business Barons, Mr. Mistry recounts how the Indian corporate interior designing industry has evolved over the year and forecasts gemetric growth for it in the next three years, Excerpts:
How do you assess the business potential of interior designing in India?
Jimmy Mistry: The business potential is huge and the environment for growth cannot be better. The last two years have witnessed rapid growth and I am buoyant about the future prospects of this industry. There are several reasons for this huge growth, the most important being the economic liberalisation programme initiated by the government.
As a result of government initiatives, several MNCs and domestic players have invested large sums in India across multiple growth sectors such as IT, call centers, automobiles, Telecommunications and infrastructure. Now, these companies need to have their own offices and factories. More importantly, these companies, especially MNCs and new-age business need to adhere to international standards and norms with regard to office ergonomics. This is where designers such as us play an important role, serving client on an all India basis.
Almost all major international brands are present in India as compared to just a handful about three years ago. This has fuelled a boom in corporate interior designing and with more international companies slated to enter the Indian market in the near future, growth potential in this segment is a given.
Do you agree with the view that this business is still unorganised in nature? If yes, how long do you thing it will take for this sector to get corporatised?
Mistry: There are two aspects to this and you are right when you say that this industry still has some distance to cover before it can consider itself an organised and corporatised sector. However, at the designing leve – a very important parameter in our industry – we are on par with the best internationally. It is only at the execution level that we are still unorganised as an industry. But here again, I want to emphasis the fact that there are individual players like Della Tecnica, which offer the best in both.
Why do we lag behind at the execution level?
Mistry: Int eh past and so some extent even now, execution is still highly compartmentalised because of low volumes of business. However, in the last couple of years, volumes have shot up and with an increasing number of international designers entering the Indian market, qulity and effiency of our offerings have also been enhanced. An important requisite of this industry is adherence to time schedules and this is increasingly being accorded priority by Indian players.
Higher volumes of business will automoatically result in greater pressure on player to professionalise themselves. This trend is already visible in the Indian corporate designing sector and I am corporate designing sector and I am confident that within the next five years our industry will get transformed into a highly professional and organised sector.
What factors will propel growth inthis business over the next three years?
Mistry: The sterling successes achieved by India in the BPO and IT sectores, high growth in the new- generation businessmen of telecom and bio-technology and the general buoyancy on the stock market have all contributed to our industry faring well in the last couple of years. These same factors will continue to propel growth in the coming years as well.
As the stock market booms, several IPOs will hit the market. The government's PSU disinvestment programme is also gathering momentum. In this scenario, organisation will want to portray their growth in a physical form as well. Another important fact is that the real estate and construction sectors are presently on an upward curve. The more the size of real estate developed, the higher the number of interiors that will need to be done up. Complementing this is the sudden spurt of construction in the commercial segment.
All theses factors will provides the impetus needed for our industry to forge ahead in the next three years.
In term of money, how much is this industry worth currently and what is your estimation of its growth over the next three years?
Mistry: I estimate its present size at around Rs. 1,000-2,000 crore, while growth should be a healthy 12-15 per annum over the next three years.
Can you describe the evolution of interior designing in India over the last five years?
Mistry: The IT boom in the late 1990s saw Indian corporate interior designing come into its own. A few foreign consultants entered the Indian market and brought with them international practices which Indian player were quick to assimilate. However, our industry was not equipped to handle businesses of large sizes as required by foreign clients. Our architechure and consultants were used to handling small projects of 5,000-10,000 sq.ft. But new-age business required handling space of 1-1.5 lakh sq.ft. Which was beyond their scope them. They lacked the infrastructure, skillsets and project management capabilities to handle a high volumes busness. Besides, in large projects, standards of economies of scal are radically different from those in smaller ones.All this had proved a handicap for Indian player in the past.
Indian were good at basic designing, but lagged behind in creative designing and mega-project managment capabilities. In today's competitive and tech-savvy world, it is no longer enough to be a fantastic individual designer. One much also be able to interface with hardware, possess presentations skills, etc. Human-related skills will no longer ensure business success; it must be supplemented with business acumen and technoloty.
Indian players also need to incorporate specialised functions within interior designing. We need to have specialists in different segment such as lighting, fabric, furniture designing, etc. In India, even now, architects look after these aspects whereas internationally, designers employ experts to look after these various facets of interior designing. Each segment requires specialisation and therefore it is incumbent to have specialists to cater to them.
Indian player are now imbibing these features and as the industry evolves, we will get more and more mature. I am giving a five-year timeframe for our industry to get corporatised and come on par with its international peers.
Eco-friendliness is today an important facet of construction and building related business. How is the Indian designing industry placed on this front?
Mistry: There is an ample availability of new-age and eco-friendly materials in India. These have been tried and tested successfully and foreign and Indian designers are increasingly beginning to use them. For example, architects now increasingly prefer wood from sustainable forest and vinyla and veneers to mask rather than natural wood. In painting, water-based paints are rapidly replacing solvent-based ones, while carcinogens have become a strict no-no nowdays. All this clearly indicates that our industry is on the right track and in accordance with international trends.
Do you feel there is need for fiscal support from the government to futher perk up your industry?
Mistry: Yes, certainly. It is in the country's interest to boost this industry. For example, there is a lot of ambiguity on the taxation frot, expecially with regard to service tax. Besides, more clarity is required on WCT and excise, which are currently proving to be heavy burdens on our industry.
Further, there is the problem of entry tax – different states have different norms for entry tax and tere is no single, nodal agency in the country to gather data on thin. This applies to sales tax as well.Thereis an urgent need to set up a single central agency to disseminate data on octroi, ST, paper and documentation requirments of various states. It will go a long way in enhancing industry performance.
Coming to Della Tecnica, could you give a brief backgroud of the company – when it was set up, its shareholding pattern, core business Focus areas, etc.?
Mistry: Della Tecnica was set up in 1995 at a small investment of Rs. 2 lakh and is a closely held company with the entire equity held by family promoters. We started our business with furniture imports and exports and over the year branched out into manufacturing and sales nationally, followed by a foray into interior designing and architecture.
Our core business focus area is provision of total interior solutions to our clients. Della Tecnica's growth really exploded after our foray into architecture and interior designing. We have also invested in a high-tech, integrated manufacturing facilityin Daman, which possesses painting lines, machines and its own fleet of trucks and logistics apparatus. From a small Rs. 2 lakh start-up in 1995, we have today evolved into a Rs. 60-crore corporate interior designing powerhouse.
Whot made you select interior designing as a business option?
Mistry: This has something to do with the way my business and career shaped up in the period between 1991 and 1995, when I was a contractor to various architects in the mumbai-Pune region. This experience provided me with the exposure to working-skills in various specialised spheres and segments as diverse as designing bunglows, hospitals, office interiors, etc. It was then that I realised that this industry was not progessing anywhere interm of organisation and professionalism.
I felt the need for organised player in this sector. The immense potential existing in this sector excited me and I felt thta only professional and organised player would be able to give an impetus to this fledgling industry. Besides, right from my youth I had always dreamt of doing something big and path breaking in the organised sector. I had reached my peak with contracting int he mid-1990s and whenever I fell I have realised my full potential in anything. I turn my attention to something new. This happened to me in the mid-1990s when I felt the need to do something new, stimulating and creative. Della Tecnica was born out of this creative urge of mine.
How has growth been for Della Tecnica in the last three years? What were your turnover and PAT in FY 03?
Mistry: We have been recording phenomenal growth in both our turnover and PAT right from inception. Our turnover vaulted from Rs. 4 lakh in 1996 to Rs. 16 lakh in 1997. Over the year and especially from the beginning of this century, our turnover has zoomed by around 80-100 prcent every year. In FY 03, our turnover and PAT stood at Rs. 30 crore and Rs. 60 lakh respectively, while our turnover and PAT projections for FY 04 are Rs. 60 crore and Rs. 3 crore respectively.
We have expanded our client base tremendously in the last three years and more importantly succeeded in retaining more than 80 per cent of them. Our strong focus on corporates has paid us rich dividends and today we have more than 100 corporates as our clients.
How many projects have you undertaken since inception and how many do you have on hand currently?
Mistry: We have handled over 1,500 projects since inception. Normally in one cycle, which comprises of a 45-day turnaround time, we undertake about 25-30 projects.
How strong is you national marketing network?
Mistry: Apart from our headquarters in Mumbai, we have a branch in Pune, a coordination office in Delhi and site offices at all our locations. Our plan now is to focus on the south, especially Banglore, where we see immense business opportunities. We feel that with our current profile of clients, it will be easy for Della Tecnica to penetrate the southern market.
Name the Project that you undertook in 2003 that was closest to your heart.
Mistry: The project that gave me the greatest satisfaction was the renovation of the 75-year-old, 6,460 sq.ft. Rustom Faramma Agiary at Dadar Parsi Colony for which we have been nominated for the 11th Urban Heritage Awards 2003 by the Indian Heritage Society, Mumbai. It is a heritage structure and to restore it to its orignial glory while simultaneously retaining its original old-world char, was a great challenge for me. The work involved extensive renovation and repairs, new lighting and ventilation system, besides creation of a Zen-like landscaped garden in the agiary's compound. The existing flooring was replaced with Italian marble, while old cornices and mouldings that had broken off from the ceiling were copied and refitted. The entire expense was borne by Della Tecnica and I am happy with the Results achieved.
Could you tell us how you managed toenhance the ambience of the police station opposite the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai?
Mistry: This was again a community service project wherein all cost were borne by Della Tecnica. My aim was to break the monotonous look of a normal police station and replace it with a corporate ambience. I wanted to prove the point that one could break the age-old looks of a government building and replace it with something more modern, comfortable and functional.
The interiors here are clean with piped music and comfortable chairs, while the station itself is enteirly glass-partitioned with a reception center and a workout area. This transformation has been brought about while retaining the original architectural structure and barrack-style look.
Finally, what do you consider as the UPSs of Della Tecnica that have given it the cutting edge in the Indian Market?
Mistry: Our biggest USP is that we have emerged as a highly creative one-stop interior solutions organization providing thoroughly professional and innovative services to its customers. My core team of 35 (designers and architects) is one of the best in the industry. The employee turnover rate at Della Tecnica is very low, which testifies to their loyalty and job satisfaction level. Everbody works here in a family like environment, which in turn brings out the best in every employee. I am blessed to have such a dedicated team working for me and I say without hesitation that it is entirely their creativity, skill-sets and enthusiasm that have transformed Della Tecnica from a small start-up eight years ago to a Rs. 60 crore corporated in 2004.
- Jimmy
Mistry |
Our integrated comprehensive design services manifest into single-window responsibilities which in turn translates into unparalleled peace of mind for our client. 
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