Omfurn India is an icon of trust in the furniture business. With the
promoters’ highest level of integrity and dedication to the goal of reaching
new levels ahead of time, the company sees a bright future for its business.
The Vishwakarma Brothers are originally from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. When the eldest of the brothers, Rajendra came to Mumbai in 1976 in search of a job, he was only 16 years. He had finished the education of only eighth standard then. The life of Rajendra Chitbahal Vishwakarma began in Mumbai by being a helper to his brother-in-law, Hiralal for nearly two years, before taking up an independent job as the next step in his career life.
Finding a job in Mumbai with the knowledge of a trade that he inherited from tradition wasn’t otherwise tough. However, that had many limitations in terms of future growth. Labour workers fetched only wages, which were insufficient to suffice one’s big dream, Rajendra knew the fact. “A mere carpenter’s job would only curtail my dream of achieving something big that I always used to dream. In every job there were limitations, but in business, there were limitless opportunities, he found,” he rightly discovered.
For four years after learning the carpentry trade, he worked as a labour contractor for some years independently. He also worked for building architects as a furniture contractor. That was the time he found scope for improvement in what he did and bringing the activities under a business architecture. For this, he needed more reliable people to manage so many things, which included office works, labour management, accounts and marketing. As the business began to grow, demand for the right manpower also went up. “As we grew we had to see many challenges. We fixed them one after the other with timely intervention. The course of setting up a business was the course of learning also,” he points out. He found so many backoffice works piling up; all of which demanded dedicated workers. On the manufacturing side also there were needs for more responsible and reliable people, he recalls. Then he brought his two brothers, Ravindra and Mahendra to join him in the business. Later, the youngest brother, Narendra also joined the team. The Vishwakarma brothers toiled hard intending to reach their common dream of being successful entrepreneurs. Rajendra could position them in the right places so that the combined efforts render desirable results for assured future growth for everyone. The plan moved up in line with the decision of the eldest brother. The company was set on a track.
Rajendra, a man with a great vision, saw India changing wherein he could see plenty of business opportunities coming up for the company that he envisioned. The business which was considered unorganised began to become an organised sector as technocrats began to make use of the change in demand patterns. He was one of the earliest ones to foresee the furniture segment transforming into a branded business with huge potential for future growth. The industry is still in the nascent stage with huge potential to grow. As the Indian economy began to grow rapidly, rendering more income in the hands of urbanites, demand patterns in the furniture market also started changing, thanks to the concept of a dream home. “In such a changing context when I set my foot in this thriving city of India, I was not prepared to limit my dream by procuring a mere job and living with it ever. I determined that one day I should be a big businessman. The dream and determination began to drive me,” recalls Rajendra Vishwakarma now spearheading Omfurn India, a firm listed on NSE’s SME platform.
It was after many years of toiling, Rajendra founded his company in By the time he had more than two decades of experience in the industry. He started his company first as a proprietorship firm, which later became a partnership, subsequently private limited and eventually public limited. In 10 years, the company could tap the capital market. Omfurn now produces and sells commercial furniture, specialised in hotel furniture, office furniture, school furniture, prefinished wooden shutter doors and door-frames, fire-rated doors, etc. The company executes turnkey interior projects for hotels, residential, offices, shopping malls, hospitals, IT parks, international schools. Many leading corporate names, including Tata Group, L&T Group, Oberoi Group, Lodha Group, Piramal Realty, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, DLF and other leading real estate companies have been Onfurn’s customers for many years. More than anything else, it is the integrity and transparency in every deal that make the company an icon of trust. In September 2017, the company offered 1,812,000 equity shares to the public, constituting 26 per cent of the post-IPO stake, and listed on the SME Platform of National Stock Exchange (NSE). Seventy-four per cent of the holding is still with the Vishwakarma brothers. If things go well, the stock of the company can migrate into the main trading platform of the bourse. “It will happen in due course, as a natural process in tune with our hard work and expansion of business,” says Rajendra. “What we have done so far is only the process of laying a foundation. Nonetheless, we have proved that all limitations are surmountable for us,” he adds.
A dream alone cannot drive a person to reach any goal. A vision with a capability to access opportunities, readiness to do hard work and a deeper understanding of the market are important factors, says Rajendra, an entrepreneur with quick grasping power. He learns the required lessons in one year that others take three or four years to learn the same. “My desire to learn and understand business remained strong,” he reminisces. Today, with the hard work that he and his brothers put in, Omfurn provides jobs to 135 people in two factories in Gujarat and considerable land parcels for future expansion of business in Umergaon.
These units are equipped with the latest woodworking CNC machines imported from Italy, Germany, Turkey and Austria. The fully mechanised unit enables the company to execute huge orders on time with excellent finish and superior precision.
The business wasn’t so well last year, because of the pandemic and consequent lockdown. “The pandemic slowed its pace of growth. But the company is confident of recovering from the slow pace and growing at a much faster rate in the days ahead as the management sees the overall economy is growing faster with less dependence on imports. This year, in the aftermath of the prolonged lockdown, the overall revenue has come down.
However with the prevailing better economic scenario, change in lifestyle of people and promotion of local industries, the domestic furniture industry is growing rapidly, he avers. This trend is expected to reflect in the company’s working also.
These days, a furniture company needs not only craftsmanship that may be taken care of by mechanisation, but also management talents. Now talents are coming up within the company to take the company to the next level. “We are readying our next generation by educating them in different disciplines keeping in mind the future necessity of a modern company like ours. We are nurturing them according to the future road map that we have set,” he points out.
Now the generation is changing. Accordingly, Rajendra has drawn plans as precisely as furniture-fittings for longer stability. The next generation, with better professionalism, will be more efficient in running the company, he says. “In our business, we need a set of engineers, architects and financial experts. Our second generation has expertise in these streams. They are getting them ready to step in,” he says. As the first generation is an opening way for the entry of new professionally qualified second generation through Vikrant, Jayesh, Parmanand, Prashant and Karan, the company is all set to acquire a more professional look with the capability to be one of the leaders in the industry, he opines. Rajendra, now Chairman of the company, wanted the new generation to take the company to a top line of above ₹100 crores and subsequently to move into a size of ₹300 crores. “They have the potential and the company has everything in place to dream a top line size of ₹300 crores,” he believes.
The company has already established its brand image and acquired an excellent client base. Some of the prestigious clients include highly respectable names such as Tata Housing, Larsen & Toubro Group, Lodha Group, Oberoi Realty, DLF, Adani, Hyatt, Ajmera, Kalpataru, Sheth Builders, Ahuja and many other leading names in the real estate industries. While the company’s brand image can support the consolidation of the client base, the new generation’s professional business strategy can drive future growth, he tells. With the right technology, experience and brand establishment in the market the management finds new vistas for growth. “We want to sell only our products. We don’t want to be a trader of others’ products since we have designing and production capability. Others can find opportunities in our talent manufacturing capabilities. As the market expands and as we build our capability, naturally there are options for us to look into other related businesses,” he asserts. There are also possibilities that foreign brands striking deals with the company looking at its infrastructure and flexibility to expand production capacities.
