Stone Plus sets eyes on domestic market

Hyderabad: City-based Stone Plus Enterprises Private Limited which carved a niche for itself in marble and granite exports has now set its eyes on domestic market, with plans to tap growing demand for natural stone products in India.

Founded in 2010 by Prasan Shah, a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in the granite export business, the company began its operations with exports. "We source natural stone materials from others and export them to North America, Canada, the Middle East, Europe. Today, we have a team of 63 people. We are primarily into export of granite and marble. Last year, we did a little bit of quartz as well," Prasan Shah said.

Explaining reasons for focusing on domestic market now, Shah, company's CEO, said: "As we drive our growth in overseas markets, we are aware that India offers huge potential for growth for companies like ours. We want to tap it now. India has always been on our minds. But we could not do it till now, as we focused on exports".

In November last year, the company decided to launch its operations in domestic market. It took a 10,000-sft warehouse on the city outskirts and modified it to meet international standards. "We started selling in Hyderabad market in March last year," Shah said.

To penetrate the domestic market, Stone Plus is tapping architects, small developers and big real estate projects. "We are ready to experiment with new designs when it comes to natural stones.

Given our exposure to various international markets, we can source materials and stones from different countries and sell them here," he explained, adding that his company supplied marble and granite slabs to a large project in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. Stone Plus deals in granite, marble, quartz, onyx, glass mosaic, vitrified tiles, slates, etc and prices range from Rs 30 per sft to Rs 5,000 per sft.

The company is in the process of opening its first showroom at its headquarters in Hitech City in Hyderabad. "Customers including homeowners can walk into the showroom and select the material they need. We will supply the material to them from warehouse," he said.

On the further expansion, he said plans were afoot to set up warehouses and showrooms in other tier 1 and 2 cities across the country. "We will expand to at least 10 cities in next five to six years. With Smart City concept coming up, many small cities are also rapidly developing. That will drive our growth in India," he said.

On granite exports from India, he said granite and marble were coming back in a big way. "Quartz picked up in a big way after 2011, but there is some uncertainty over its exports now. That will drive growth of granite and marble exports from India," he said.

-P Madhusudhan Reddy