Motivated by the passion to always make people happy, DO. 11, a frontline interior design company in Nigeria, has taken delight in the business of transforming lives by creating beauty, style and comfort in spaces where people live or work.
Interior design and/or decoration has always been a serious business revolving around creativity and expression which man has used, in various ways, to transform nature and recreate environment.
From a modest and humble beginning that has endured economic cycles and unfriendly operating environment where human resource, finance, power and material sourcing are a huge challenge, DO.11 has grown to become a destination for all home, office and hospital furniture needs.
Carefully guided by a strong vision to make spaces come alife, the company has deployed creativity and mastery of the art to achieve its mission of transforming lives by beautifying spaces using wood, laminate, plywood, fabrics, steel, chrome and other materials, giving phenomenal results.
“We have designed, created and delivered over 2000 design projects, and sold over 5 million pieces of furniture, transforming lives by creating beauty, style and comfort in the process. This, when you think about it, is really what we are all about at DO.II,” enthused Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, DO.11’s CEO, who spoke to BusinessDay in Lagos recently
Ighodalo, an Accountancy graduate, developed interest in space designing quite early in life, reflecting her interest in figures, details and also what, to her, was a family trade and passion. This, according to her, explained her short stint in the formal working space and early return to the art of creating beauty.
DO.II is currently in a transition phase and its movement from a remodeled one-storey residential building, to a three-floors and a penthouse open plan purpose built 1,300sqm+ showroom tells the story. This move, according to the CEO, is the start of a critical stage of the business as their old showroom had become more stifling than expressive of all that the company had to offer.
This is a Nigerian brand which has a local outlook but global standards. The company prides itself as a brand that is proudly African, creating ‘Made in Nigeria’ products and believing that this is the way furniture is sold all over the world.
“DO.II focuses on office and home furniture and fittings manufacturing, interior design, renovations, remodeling, procurement and project management. Our extensive furniture range includes office furniture, living room, bedroom, dining room and hospitality furniture”, Ighodalo disclosed.
With a team of over 100 trained and committed staff, 50 percent of which are women in middle and upper management, DO.11 has a daily production capacity that is over 1,000 with the hope of quadrupling that number in the next 18 months – 3 years to meet Nigerian and Pan-African furniture demand.
The company currently produces at about 70 of our factory installed capacity, but now that its flagship store is open, the next project is to fully optimize its current installed capacity as it develops and equips its over 10,000-square metre factory and warehouse property h in Lagos.
DO.11 has an ambition expansion plan such that in the next 3-5 years, it will be making another big move to its permanent factory and warehouse location–another multi-storey retail outlet in Nigeria. It also plans to export its own made in Nigeria furniture to new markets outside the country.
CHUKA UROKO
