Ajay Khurana: Man with the mission of driving growth of Formica India

Ajay Khurana

Formica, a century old iconic brand inextricably linked to the invention of the original High Pressure Laminate (HPL), is guided by the philosophy of highest ethical standards in all the aspects of business including sales, marketing, sourcing, and supply chain management. A part of Netherlands-based Broadview Holding, Formica Group has big plans for expansion in India.

Recently, Formica, the leading provider of designed surfacing solutions, has launched a brand-new collection for India with a catalogue that reimagines the way we view spaces and surfaces. The catalogue features quintessential staples while introducing new hyper-realistic materials that provide new meaning to living spaces with unique international designs specifically chosen from all across the world for those who follow the global trends and their interior spaces project their personality.

Apart from its own brand Formica, the company represents two brands of its sister companies - one is from ARPA Italy called Fenix which is anti-finger anti-scratch, very soft to touch, no light reflectivity, high-mat surface. Moreover, Formica India is the official exclusive distributor of the FENIX range in India presenting the innovative materials designed and manufactured in Italy. "In India we are proudly associated with Fenix from Broadview Holding group company," said Mr Ajay Khurana, Managing Director, Formica India.

Soft to touch and anti-fingerprint, Fenix with an extremely opaque surface, comes with the properties of thermal healing. In case there are any minor scratches they can be healed through thermal healing. And then, Formica India also represents another Broadview Holding company called Homapal in India with a brand called DecoMetal, which is a real metal laminate. They manufacture in Germany and supply it in India.

Formica is manufacturing High Pressure Laminate (HPL) at its manufacturing plant spread over 7 acre in Kalol near Ahmedabad and in it's also selling Fenix from Arpa Italy and Homapal from Homapal Germany in Indian market. Mr. Khurana said, "We are focusing on these products as our strategy in India is to focus on our premium products. Even in the HPL that we manufacture in our plant in Kalol in Ahmedabad, we are focusing on premium laminates. All these laminates are designed in-house by Formica global team, and we call it Global Series Laminates. These laminates are being designed by Formica globally in our own design centre."

"These are premium laminates with exclusive colour design and pattern and there is no real competition for these HPL laminates in India so far. Their textures are unique and they are very innovative in the designs that we do here," he adds.

A man with a mission, Mr. Khurana has charted a massive expansion plan for Formica India in the country. With the aim to expand Formica India heavily across the tier-I-II cities in the country, he aims to capture a bigger pie of the premium segment Laminate market in India. "We want to establish ourselves in the premium category and we are already revamping our operations in India," he averred.

Mr. Khurana who took the helm of Formica India this year only said, "When I joined Formica, there was a small sales force because in the last two years when Broadview Holding took over the company, COVID was prevalent in the country and there was no activity and a lot of people left. So, we had to restructure our sales force. We have added a lot of people pan-India; we have hired regional heads in each region, and under them we have built teams to cater to the retail sales and the furniture OEMs."

A seasoned business leader, Mr. Khurana was earlier associated with REHAU India as its chairman and he posses extensive international expertise with proven track record of growth and delivering organizational goals. "REHAU experience comes in quite handy for my strength here in Formica. When I joined REHAU in 2001, the challenges and opportunities there bore similarity to the current scenario at Formica India. When I left REHAU, I had built a turnover of 300 crore with multiple showrooms and thousand distributors pan-India," said Mr. Khurana.

At Formica India, he has also been instrumental in roping in designers and architects apart from strengthening the retail penetrations. In very short span of time, he has successfully increased the size of Formica India considerably.

"In India, we are going on our own now and we are rebuilding our channel. While we are reinforcing our brand we are also restructuring the way we work. Formica is a very popular brand and we are going for digital marketing," said Mr. Khurana.

Currently, the company already has about 20 distributors for its global series, nine dealers-distributors for Fenix and four distributors for DecoMetal while the company is continuously out in the market and appointing a lot of dealers and distributors. Going forward, Fenix India aims to double its dealers/distributors network in the next year under the astute leadership of Mr. Khurana.

"We are looking at three-fold growth in the next year. Similarly, we have more positions coming up next year where we will have more sales personnel in the market working on the ground, strengthening our dealers and distributors network," said Mr. Khurana. Fenix India has already expanded its wings across Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Pinjore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Kolkata, Raipur and in most of the state capitals and tier-II cities.

State-wise, Formica India has strong presence across Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, Kerala, Gujarat, and at all these places the company has its distributors. "We have a lot of distributors pan-India and these distributors have their own showrooms. Now, we are coming up with a company-owned showroom in Delhi also. First and foremost, we will come up in Delhi and the deal is about to be finalised, and by Q1, 2022 we will have this inaugurated. In 2023, we will come up with our experience centre either in Mumbai or Bengaluru.

Formica India also supports its distributors in designing of its state-of-the-art display centres. "We focus only the premium category and that's the way forward. We want to have triple growth in revenue. We have already added a lot of people this year and we want to gain the best out of them," said Mr. Khurana.

The company has plans to have its own showroom in Delhi and the next year either in Mumbai and Bengaluru. "Our current focus so far has been on high-income tier-1 cities in India. We are also doing well in a lot of tier-II cities like Pune, Ahmedabad and the southern cities like Kochi," said Mr. Khurana.

A visionary leader, Mr. Khurana said, "I have just taken over and plan to build year on year. As we are in rebuilding and restructuring stage, we are looking at 3X growth next year and then we are looking at growth of 60% in 2023 and then 25% in 2024. We are looking at 25% growth each year up to 2026, that's how we plan to grow."

Formica lives up to its ethos as "Makers of Change, One Surface at a Time" by constantly innovating through research and development to improve its surfacing materials for the next generations. This drive has allowed the time-tested brand to stay evolved and ahead of the curve since its inception in 1913.

Formica continuously looks into providing a trendy, smart and practical product to improve life. Customers draw satisfaction from using the high-quality laminate designs from the original inventor of laminate and manufacturer of innovative surfacing products.