How do you perceive the Indian market as of now when it comes to windows and façades?
The system windows industry is just 12 to 15 years old effectively and is still in evolving phase. At present, people are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of high-quality windows and the sustainability they provide for years after their installation. So, this is a good sign for the industry for upcoming times. Also, this industry is expanding to tier 2 and 3 cities, which again is an indication of exponential growth in coming times for the industry.
How has your company Spectrum Windows evolved over the years?
Spectrum is a 10-year-old company. In earlier times, service and customer satisfaction used to be a challenge. The very foundation of Spectrum was laid on the fact that such challenges should be overcome and to raise the customer satisfaction level by adopting customer-friendly processes in our sales and service model. Though we had a modest start, we focused ourselves more on laying down the processes, training our sales team to inculcate the customercentric culture in their day-to-day workings. In order to achieve this, we continuously imparted training to our front liners in which educating the customers also was an integral part of the journey. Spectrum is mainly into retail and we have developed our infrastructure as per retail sales only.
As you know, catering to retail customers is known to be one of the most challenging jobs in the window industry.
We are amongst the top 3 retail brands in North India having such vast sales and service network. Since we cater to the retail segment where customers are very demanding, the product quality needs to be of great quality. We are in technical collaboration with Deceuninck, since the beginning.
Please tell us about your products?
We offer all kinds of window systems like sliders, casement, bi-fold, combination doors and windows, lift and slide, etc. with superior quality Spectrum make hardware. We are the largest buyer for Deceuninck profiles in India for the last several years.
In Windows, uPVC has only a 15% market share. What’s your strategy to tap this untapped segment of the market?
As I have said, system windows are just evolving, there is much more scope to attract users in a big way by running awareness programs for architects and customers in which profile companies and UWDMA have to play a big role. At our end, we try running such programs frequently and also we are expanding ourselves in untapped markets to smaller cities and experimenting with different methods for user awareness and increase in volume.
Please tell us about your manufacturing and warehouse facilities?
We have state of an art manufacturing facility in Greater Noida where our capacity to make 8000 to 10000 windows in a month. Being in retail we have to maintain all kinds of stocks, so the stock inventory is huge as the customers’ demands for any of the variety can arise at any point in time.
For the past 3 to 4 years, we have been trying to extend our network to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. We have been quite successful in doing this, and are getting a very good response. Spectrum has more than 30 channel partners across North India along with a direct sales team that is active in Delhi/ NCR region. We have almost more than 100 front-line salespeople at present along with a dedicated service team in every region.
How has the pandemic affected your business?
Post-pandemic, we observed that the demand of the customers in the segment that we deal with never lessened. The only challenge we faced was supply chain management, from the vendor end, during that time. We now feel that things have improved a lot, and it seems we are also back on track.
How difficult is the Indian market?
In India, the customer base for system windows is already very high, we only need to create awareness for untapped markets so that the demand grows. Whenever a new concept/business idea is introduced, gradually it starts flooding which creates disruptions. The serious players hence face difficulties during these times. In our industry, the same things have happened. Now the situation is improving and only serious players can survive, thanks to UWDMA for making an effort to standardize the product and processes, which will further help to retain customers’ trust.
Where do you see your company in the next 5 years?
It’s been a very smooth and steady journey till now things have happened the way we predicted. In today’s times, window business is a successful business model in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Our ambition is to make this model successful in tier 3 cities too as they are much more in numbers. So, we can say in the next 5 years, this model will help us to grow exponentially!