Sofa so good: UAE’s Marina Home Interiors

With tens of thousands of expatriates coming and going every year, there is at least one thing always in demand in the UAE: furniture. So it may seem unsurprising that one of the country’s most high-profile furniture stores, Marina Home Interiors, has increased turnover by 20 percent year-on-year for almost two decades.

But co-founder Khurshid Vakil says the company’s success has had little to do with foresight; when he and his two brothers launched their first store in Dubai in 1997 they had no idea of the real estate boom to come. What they could see was that the emirate was sorely lacking inspiring furniture.

“At that point in time in Dubai [the furniture industry] needed a change, it needed an entry with a fresher appeal, with a fresher look and feel, with products that are not mass-produced and of very low quality,” Vakil tells Arabian Business ,sitting at an enormous wooden table in a funky, warehouse-style office at the back of Marina Home Interiors’ flagship store in the Mall of Emirates.

“The market needed something different and we believe we entered at a point which was just right. The real estate development growth starting in 2001 onwards definitely helped, definitely added or accelerated the growth that Marina has seen.”

Original article by Courtney Trenwith

Continue reading at Arabian Business:

Sofa so good: UAE’s Marina Home Interiors

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