$200M Kissoon's Furniture City to open doors today
15,000 `citizens' to get club cards

By Gitanjali Singh
Stabroek News
July 19, 2000


The Kissoon Group in a $200 million investment has transformed its furniture store on Camp Street into a `furniture city' set for official opening today.

"We can't get complacent. We have to stamp our authority in the furniture business and let customers know we are constantly innovating. Shopping here will be more convenient now," Asha Kissoon-Roberts said yesterday.

From Dining Lane, Tile Boulevard, Thread Needle Street, Electric Avenue, Sleepers Plain to Plywood Place, Foam Highway and Curtain Corner, customers can roam around numerous lanes and niches created by Ross Advertising Agency to find their household furnishings.

Kissoon's Furniture City, as the store is now called, stretches from the building next to Archie's Electrical on Robb Street to the existing furniture store, converting what was formerly the Guiding Light Disco and before that Tang's Bakery, into sections of the furniture city. It is now three times its original size and the company's factory output has increased ten-fold to meet the anticipated demand.

The ground floor of the refurbished store showcases beds, chairs, tables, lamps, tiles, foam, covering materials and televisions among other items. It also includes a section on a Korean Art Exhibition. An elevation leads to the rugs roundabout with another leading to the curtain section and a sewing room. The top floor houses the office plus a showroom for furniture.

But it will not just be shopping alone. According to Chairman of the Kissoon Group, Hemraj Kissoon, custom-built furniture is being offered as well as sewing services for curtains, pillow cases, sheets including fitted sheets, aprons, cushion covers, table clothes and serviettes within hours.

Staff of the furniture store have been trained to offer advice to customers on what type of furniture will best suit their needs.

The icing on the cake is the negotiable interest-free credit on purchases. Kissoon explained that two prices will be available to customers. Those in a position to pay cash for items purchased will be eligible for the factory price of the item. Those not so disposed will be allowed to negotiate the terms of repayment of the cash price. Both the cash and factory prices will be reflected on the tags of the items. The factory price, Kissoon explained, was the price charged by the factory for the items which includes a mark-up. The cash price is the price the store sells the item for to make a profit.

The launch of Kissoon's Furniture City is being cushioned by a plush marketing campaign as well. Fifteen thousand choice club cards are being distributed to would-be customers entitling them to a five percent discount anytime they visit the store and the television and radio commercials for the store have been changed.

Commenting on the expansion, Kissoon said his group looked ahead and in considering the challenges of globalisation and free trade commenced the expansion.

"We thought it was best to revolutionise Kissoon's. We are too big to be Kissoon's alone. We feel we should be Kissoon's Furniture City ... We are changing Georgetown," Kissoon told Stabroek News yesterday.

The Kissoon Group started 50 years ago as a dry goods merchant and has now expanded into rice farming, cattle rearing, real estate, low-cost housing, the hotel industry, furniture manufacturing and merchandising. The furniture sector has branches at Linden, Corriverton, Port Mourant and New Amsterdam. The re-opening of its Essequibo branch is scheduled for August.


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