Source: CzechCrunch
During his university studies around 2013, Petr Mudra worked for a company that produced furniture for a major furniture chain in the Czech Republic. That was also the time when the first online stores selling furniture were being created, and Mudr liked it. He decided to bring affordable designer furniture to the Czech market and with it something new that hadn't been here before. "And I dare to say that even after years we are still doing well," he tells CzechCrunch.
Petr Mudra named his online store simply and clearly - Designovynabytek.cz. Over the years, he has built a growing e-shop from Pilsen, which appeals to more and more customers with its furniture, decorations and accessories of all kinds. This year, the plan is to reach 180 million crowns in sales and next year it will double. The best-selling products are seating furniture, and Design Furniture has over two thousand products in stock.
"We are monitoring the growth of demand for stock goods with the possibility of next-day delivery. The Czech customer is one of the most demanding customers in Europe, thanks to the high bar set by the competition not only in the furniture industry," Mudra describes the situation on the market, which is entered by both large established players and progressive e-shops. It is precisely because of the increasing demand that Designový návet is planning to build new warehouses.
In Chotíkov near Pilsen, the company is building a new warehouse with an area of 2.5 thousand square meters, which also includes office space. "The warehouse will be equipped with mobile rack systems, so-called classic racks placed on a mobile chassis, thanks to which we can increase the capacity of the warehouse by up to 90 percent," says Mudra. He can afford it thanks to the fact that his e-shop is profitable and he invests all free funds back into development.
To the Czech Republic, Designovynabytek.cz imports timeless pieces from manufacturers from all over Europe, including brands such as Zuiver, Tabanda, Marco Barotti, Dan Form, Take Me Home, Bold Monkey, Dutchbone and Bloomingville. The menu includes everything from tables to storage spaces and beds or sofas to chairs, lighting and accessories for cooking and dining. In the future, however, he wants to build more and more on his own brands and products, which the Pilsen e-shop produces completely in the Czech Republic in cooperation with Arbyd.
"We try to follow a different path than competing e-shops, where you can imagine all kinds of cheap products from China under their 'own brand'. Currently, this strategy is in its infancy, but we believe that it will be one of our competitive advantages in the future. We are now testing retail sales in the Czech Republic so that next year we will be able to offer these products to European e-shops," describes Mudra's strategy.
Currently, the Czech Republic is the largest outlet for designer furniture, but it also sells in Slovakia and also exports to France, where it is a supplier of seating furniture for hotel chains. Next year, he plans to launch an e-shop under the new brand in Hungary and Romania in order to meet his planned growth of one hundred percent. The company is also investing in its own vehicle fleet to be able to deliver even the most voluminous shipments, and will soon offer the possibility of taking away old furniture and its subsequent disposal.
- 01Kitchens
- 02Home furniture
- 03Offices
- 04Public buildings
- 05Hotels
- 06Interior doors