‘India’s ceramic industry has potential to reach every part of world’

Manoj Gopalani, Managing Director, Emerald Worldwide Connections Pvt Ltd speaks on holding India’s first event for tiles, sanitaryware and natural stones and the potential of this segment

As India stands as the second largest exporter of ceramic tiles in the world, the industry is important. Despite this, the country did not have any show that dedicatedly catered to this industry. To fill this gap, earlier this year, India’s first-ever Ceramic and Bath Industry Show was organised by Emerald Worldwide Connections Pvt Ltd. Held in Mumbai over a three-day period, it was a first of its kind event for tiles, sanitaryware and natural stones, and it saw the participation of 43 exhibitors. 

Speaking with BW HOTELIER, Manoj Gopalani, Managing Director, Emerald Worldwide Connections Pvt Ltd said, “We did have our set of challenges, but we were very confident and had a lot of conviction and perseverance. We were very clear that we wanted to make it happen and we will definitely only grow from here.”

Talking about how he perceived hotels as a sector, Gopalani said, “From an institution sales point of view, it is one of the very important sectors for the show that we are doing. We are catering to all segments and are constantly innovating in all aspects and we aim and intend to create a platform wherein everybody in this particular industry benefits, and I personally feel that hotels definitely have a lot to benefit. This platform is about ensuring that we connect the right buyer and seller so that eventually, business can happen, so we see a huge potential for both our buyers and exhibitors.”

When it comes to hotel chains, Gopalani said that he believed Marriott would benefit a lot from such platforms, especially considering its diverse offerings across categories and its quick expansion to ensure presence in almost all Tier-2 cities in India. “I feel everybody will benefit from this, and this is only the first year for us. Next year, we would want to at least double the number of partners we had this year, if not more, while also increasing in terms of reach. This is because our aspiration and promise to our partners is that we will ensure that global buyers will be a part of our show,” he said, adding that India’s current position in the world when it comes to manufacturing of ceramic tiles lends it the potential to be present in every part of the world. 

While for the first edition of the show did not particularly focus solely on hospitality industry, when it comes to experiential engagement of guests for the sector in terms of innovative ceramics and bathware, etc, it did aim to provide a platform for designers and manufacturers to come together and innovate the offerings for the end users, shared Gopalani, who also said that the team had already begun on working for the second edition of the platform.



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