Designer of bespoke interior solutions, Gemona West has launched a showroom, in an expansion of its creative design studio.
The company commenced operations in 2015 after participating in the first Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.
Naomi Smith, commercial director at Gemona West said the concept for a showroom and an e-commerce platform arose from her experience when she relocated to Nigeria from the United Kingdom.
She said: “Living in the UK, you have easy access to the furniture of various prices and quality. You have options and you choose what options you want. But one of the challenges I found is that just to get nice affordable furniture, it was at luxury pricing, way above what the furniture pieces that we were seeing were worth,” she said.
“So for me, I felt that we needed a platform that would sell affordable furniture and a variety of furniture in international standard locally.”
Smith explained that they had planned to kick start both the studio and showroom together at inception since both concepts were relevantly in the same industry, but it had been difficult to pull through with them both at the same time.
According to Deise Smith, the creative director at Gemona West, the showroom was originally part of the plan to start the design company. But the studio took off more quickly than it kept them busy enough to put the plan for the showroom on a five-year goal. It ended up a seven-year plan.
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On the value coming with the showroom, Deise Smith said more contemporary modern designs will be introduced, as they leverage on the reliable brand that the studio already helped to build, leaving their clients with a sense of trust and certitude for their choice of furniture pieces.
“The value I believe that we’re adding is that we’re giving the industry and clients an option to get pieces selected by Gemona West,” Deise said.
Naomi said that though the organisation deals with many high net worth individuals whose taste is luxury, the firm has maintained pricing for quality and luxury. “We’re able to produce pieces that are close to international standards, and we’re able to produce them at a fraction of the cost they will be paying if they bought them from abroad,” She added.
She said the most significant thing about the launch for her is what the organisation is giving or offering to the community. According to her, affordable furniture means that you have more places that look good, feel good, and help with people’s wellbeing.
Gemona West prides itself as a community serving company, which are the end-users and the design industry as well, as it is supporting local manufacturers also.
Femi Young, managing director at the organisation added that they had also won awards at the time they were operating just the studio, which now further commends the brand as established and trusted.
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