West Wind Concepts Pvt. Ltd., a company that has been engaged in defining retail design, started its operation in New Delhi in the late 90s. With experience in the industry spanning over three decades, it has grown from a small factory of light engineering to one of the most modern plants in Manesar near Gurgaon. To reach this level, the journey for the founders Ajay Arora and Rajeev Arora began with independent manufacturing and fabricating of furniture and fixtures for retail outlets across India and abroad.
With growing opportunities, the company adopted global practices, cutting-edge design and in-house product development, along with store built-outs/turnkey projects. To explore more on this front, we at Sign & POP World caught up with Namisha Arora, the company’s young & energetic director. She spoke to us at length while sharing about the company’s facelift, its operations as well as its plans to expand its footprint. Here are the excerpts of what she shared with us:
How is the company placed in the industry?
West Wind Concepts is ideally located to serve the burgeoning retail sector and is closely working with reputed national and multinational brands in India. The present format of business includes retail store fixtures, turnkey contracts for design coordination and goes on to fit-outs of stores across India for numerous brands. Therefore, it is not surprising, WestWind Concepts is recognised as one of the largest manufacturers of Retail Outlet Furniture and Display systems in India and abroad.
We undertake turnkey contracts covering GC & MEP site executions, including installations of above products for any size of project at any given location in the country. Apart from that we also assist the industry stakeholders and professionals such as designers, engineers and architectural services in the process of planning, budgeting, drawings and execution of their products.
Thus, we have three legs of our business. One is the manufacturing part of fixture, second is the civil turnkey project store fit-outs and signages, and the third is we ourselves are franchisees for some brands. For Levis and Adidas, we are master franchisee in north India wherein we have 50-60 shops of ours.
Where is the plant located? What about infrastructure?
We have our plant in IMT Manesar, Gurgaon, which is spread across 65,000 sq ft area where we have the whole production line from metal to powder coating. We use all sorts of metal including mild steel, hard role steel, stainless steel, aluminium, etc. in our projects. Plus, we also have a 7-times powder coating process installed in the premises which facilitates us to meet specific requirements of our varied clientele.
We have a wooden production area where we have panel saws, beam saws, CNC, edge binding machines, robotic paint machines – all German and Italian. Further, we have about 150 labourers in the factory, and the whole group has about 500 people employed in it.
Which all brands are you associated with for store solutions?
Interestingly, when Reebok and Adidas started their Indian operations, we were there with them. They, in fact, started their Indian operations with us and are still associated with us for their retailing solutions. Notably, it has been about 15 years with Adidas and over 10 years with Levi’s. With such an experience, we are associated with a number of international brands like Zara, Roberto Cavalli, H&M, Versace, etc.
What is your strategy? How do you approach your clients?
As I said, we are a family-owned business and don’t take orders just for the sake of it. We take only as many orders as we can handle with ease, and cater to the satisfaction level of our clients. Our USP is to retain clients for years to come. So, we are a 24×7 service-company where all our family members are dedicatedly involved.
Despite being operational for all these years with so many successful projects, why did we never hear of WestWind Concepts?
It’s a kind of revamp of our existence, the way the company appears now. Earlier, we were too conservative in terms of PR and marketing, but now we have moved forward and taken a step ahead in this area as well. We thought that the industry, its stakeholders and the people around should know that there exists a total retail solutions provider. We have even revamped our logos. We have done a shoot of all our projects. We went on to a new factory, set up a new base, and are now trying to increase our presence in the market. We are truly in the process of expanding our clientele.
How did you market your solutions before this revamp?
In the past, it was through word of mouth only. So, if somebody sees our work at the existing set up of our clients, they would refer our name, or if somebody gets shifted to some other company or probably met someone in need, used to refer us. We are not yet in the digital world to an extent we should have been.
Which kind of projects does your company undertake?
We are open to anything that we can construct from metal or wood irrespective of applications. We can do fashion retail, cosmetics, visual merchandising, etc. It depends upon the kind of clients and things that click between us. Since our experience is so vast, and of course, its first hand, we can make anything out of a picture. I mean, the expertise is much higher.
How do you take on project execution?
We do all installations ourselves – be it in India or abroad including Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, etc. We do everything right from designing till execution. We have various teams depending upon the expertise, which we send to execute any particular project. A store like Zara measuring 25,000 to 30,000 sq. ft. takes three-four months. And to do all this, we have our office in almost all the states in India.
The overseas brands usually carry their own style and fixtures. How do you cope up with their needs?
As I mentioned, we offer end-to-end solution. In case of international brands, we usually import the fixtures and install it here in India for them. For instance, if we want to do a store for Zara, we import the fixtures from Spain where they have their factory for all this. Till date, we have been designing and delivering the specific needs of renowned multinationals such as Adidas, Reebok, Levis, Zara, Massimo Dutti (by Inditex-S.A of SPAIN), Roberto Cavalli, H&M, etc. In fact, these MNCs have given the global look to Indian retail shops and have garnered appreciations.