Castlery gets rid of middle men costs in furniture selling

Scandinavian-inspired designer furniture are sold in “honest tags”.

When Declan Ee, Castlery co-founder, realised that buying a well-designed, good quality piece of furniture is too expensive in Singapore when it doesn’t necessarily have to be, he ventured out and started his own furniture business, Castlery.

Castlery is a click-and-mortar start-up business that provides Scandinavian-inspired designer furniture at “friendly and honest price tags” that reach out to the consumer market. The founders believe that no one should be denied of quality design pieces for their homes and offices.

"We’ve realised the high costs that come with buying furniture are contributed by middlemen costs, wastage, and mark-ups, so we wanted to change that and provide good designs to locals at an affordable price. We are able to achieve this by setting up our own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, and owning our own supply chain, so that we can not only cut out the middlemen costs, but also curate the quality of our furniture from production to delivery," he said.

Ee explained that one of the things that they are proud of is that they have managed to build a furniture brand that has its own personality. "We wanted to create a brand that not only provides well-designed furniture, but to also be a brand that people can relate to, especially since a curated brand image is more important than ever before. This is why we invest in the best talents to be a part of our diverse and multi-national team," he added.

Ee said that consumers spend up to 70% less than typical retail prices on their furniture and they also get value-added consultation services from Castlery's design consultants at its Experience Centre in Delta House.

Castlery’s humble beginnings started with CEO Fred Ji, CTo Zhou Zhiwei and Ee, along with the help of their wives. It was a very close-knit team where everyone chipped in across various roles - from changing colour shades on Photoshop, to buying coffee, to coming out with digital social media content, for instance.

"We coded the first version of the website in 10 days, and launched it thereafter. Just 3 days after the launch, someone purchased a bulb, and within a week, someone else purchased a sofa. By the end of the first month since our launch, we managed to sell three sofas and a table," he shared.

Month on month, the firm's sales grew 100-200%. However nine months later, the group decided to expand their supply chain to rid bottle necks. COO Travers Tan joined at this juncture, and became Castlery’s main expert in supply chain management.

Castlery currently has a refurbished Experience Centre at Delta House – now stretching over 10,000 square feet that holds in-store furniture models and its own music studio.