Creating Casa Bella

Entrepreneur's Story

By: Agustinus Gius Gala

Globe Asia-30 Januari 2009. Indonesia’s wealthy elite expect to be pampered by retailers of high-quality home furnishings and Winten Wilaras has created a booming business by doing just that. For Winten Wilaras, 44, creating a beautiful house is not a big deal. Her ease in tackling the task is not because of her training, although she holds an interior design degree from an American university.More important, she says, is her love of designing house interiors.

Winten is the owner and founder of Casa Bella which, in both Italian and Spanish, means beautiful house.Visit her retail furniture outlet at Darmawangsa Square Citywalk, South Jakarta and you will be amazed by her range of classic European, American, modern and modern classic furnishings. Or visit her decorations at Bellagio or Hampton’s Park apartment show units.In terms of price, each item is matched to its beauty. A dining room set, for example, costs as much as a simple house. “That’s because we provide imported furniture which is limited in amount,” Winten, a mother of two, tells GlobeAsia.Among the branded furniture she imports from Spain, Italy and the US for her A+ target customers are Hurtado, Tecni Nova and Nicoleto.

She also provides auxiliaries or loose furniture pieces such as trays, armchairs, lighting and key accessories such as carpets, paintings, photo frames, wallpaper and curtains.Extraordinary growthWinten started her business in 1997, just when the Asian monetary crisis started to hit Indonesia. She’d just returned from the US with her husband and daughter, where she had spent 10 years involved in the hotel industry. Moving from one city to another there had made her more confident and flexible.“I told my husband I didn’t want to stay at home all the time, taking care of our children and waiting for him to come back from the office. No way,” she recalls.On February 22, 1997, Winten commenced her furniture and interior business with the opening of a 150-square meter Casa Balla store with four workers at Taman Anggrek Mal.

In 2000 she opened a second retail outlet at Ratu Plaza furniture center. The 500-square meter outlet employed 25. “In three years, I saw significant development in my business,” she says proudly.Another four years on, Winten made a much bigger expansion by moving to Darmawangsa Square Citywalk, her present retail outlet. The 1,500-square meter space needs at least 100 employees. “It is a blessing and an achievement,” she says. “I set this business up when the monetary crisis hit,” she says of the rocketing growth of her business. Casa Bella has also expanded to include interior design work and selection of furniture. Together with the Pikko Group, the developer of the Hampton’s Park apartment project, Casa Bella opened a representative office to provide furnishing needs of apartment dwellers. “At Hampton’s Park the units are small and occupied by the younger market segment so our customers there prefer the modern minimalist concept,” Winten explains.

At the Bellagio apartment, customers prefer classic design interiors.For this service, Casa Bella charges at least Rp1.5 million to Rp2.5 million per square meter. For a two-bedroom apartment of about 100 square meters, the charge is at least Rp100 million.The rich are specialWinten predicts the real estate business in Indonesia will grow better and bigger compared to the 20,000-25,000 apartment units that were built between 1988 and 1999. “From 2008 to 2010, 50,000 apartment units will be developed. That’s why I believe in this business,” she says firmly.The current global financial crisis is of no concern to her, she says.

It will make ‘high-end’ people more selective in spending their money. In any case, she adds, very rich people prefer to wait and see until a better season arrives.Winten states that a service company must focus first on customer satisfaction followed by price, quality and time to finish a project. “I can say that our success is based on customer loyalty. They already trust us,” she says.Without mentioning names, Winten says most of her customers are business people, the wealthy elite and dignitaries who require special treatment. “Usually, they never come during office hours. Each time they come here, I have to send my crew to present our interior design concept at their house. I do it all the time and 50% of my business is done this way,” she admits proudly. According to the Ministry of Trade’s 2007 data, imported furniture is growing annually by 5%-10%.