HOF Furniture teams up with Italian studio for designer sofas

AHMEDABAD: Furniture maker HOF Furniture System Pvt Ltd has roped in an Italian design studio lo introduce sofas designed in Italy and made in India.
"Italy has long been synonymous with high quality design especially in furniture and home decor. Unfortunately, Italian designs are conceptualised wrongly in India as many furniture importers from SE Asian countries and China falsely tags their imported products as Italian," HOF chairman Pravin Patel said.

Italian designer Miki Astori will lead the team that will create HOF's new range of sofas, he said. "These sofas will be customized according to Indian taste," Patel said.
HOF has taken on board National Institute of Design graduate Mann Singh, who has in the past collaborated with Italian company Driade to design a series of bowls, as product designer.
The company, which retails its products branded HOF through 21 exclusive HOF Zones and ecommerce portal hofliving.com, has an annual turnover of about Rs 40 crore.

It plans to more than double its exclusive store count to 50 by the end of this fiscal. "We are planning exclusive HOF zones across all tier-I and tier-II cities pan India," Patel said.
HOF has overseas presence in Nepal and Tanzania. Patel said it plans to reach Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the UAE by 2016. The marketing campaign for HOF's Italian sofas would be called 'OOH and AAH' - 'OOH' for looks and 'AAH' for comfort, Patel said.