How Indian Artisans Helped A British Furniture Business Hit $10 Million In Sales

How Indian Artisans Helped A British Furniture Business Hit $10 Million In Sales

Artisan Furniture has its eyes on an online marketplace platform. A U. K. business that is wholly reliant on village craftsmen in Jaipur, India might, at first glance, look like a precarious model. But Artisan Furniture has made a feature of it and, throughout the pandemic, the company has proved resilient, racking up double-digit growth and now on an expansion path, helped by Goldman Sachs GS . Artisan Furniture's linear international supply chain was conceived—since its founding by CEO Amit Basu in 1995—with the intention of supporting an ecosystem of hundreds of skilled furniture makers in Jaipur in Rajasthan state, and in the city's surrounding areas. The idea has also ensured that products being marketed today to retail partners such as TKMaxx, the European subsidiary of apparel and home goods groupTJX Companies; Spain's leading department store group El Corte Inglès; and Wayfair W , are authentically Indian-made and hand-crafted; features that carry a price premium. Back then, Basu's fledgling furniture import/exports business was launched with $600 of scholarship money and managed from a garage in Jaipur. His big break came when he decided to concentrate on pine, considered exotic in India because it was not easily available. He fused imported