Avanaafrica.com helps sustain African traditions by using authentic cultural designs, adding value to traditional handcrafted craftsmanship and creating better finished products that can have a contemporary value for the consumer. Founded by Vandana Sharad and Sharad Sridhar, the plan is to create a global market for African contemporary products. We speak to Vandana Sharad on the expansion strategy for 2018.

Please tell us about your venture? How does it work?

We started working with artisans nearly three years back. Now we have the company registered in the US and in Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa. Avana Lifestyle Africa SARL got registered in Abidjan on 28th November 2016. Avana International, LLC got registered in the US on 15th March 2017. Founded by Vandana Sharad and Sharad Sridhar, Avana does not have any factory premise for itself and is struggling to work in Africa. We recently sanctioned a warehousing and workshop space to Avana Lifestyle Africa by the Minister of Commerce and Crafts. Till now, all of Avana’s work was being done at workshops of several vendors, which continues till date as the place offered by the Government has no electricity and water supply.

Here are few things that we do: 

Product Creation: All designs are created by Avana and the particular sculptor together. 

Finishing: After sculpting a product raw, the sculptor hands it to Avana. Avana gets the products smoothened (sand papered) by another set of people, who are mostly unskilled young labour. After several rounds of sandpapering job, mostly manually, Avana collects them and transports them to the finishing unit, where products go through several rounds of polishes and further smoothening.

Value Addition: We do several kinds of value addition in terms of product enhancement by adding materials like bronze, gold powder, taints, etc.

What are the unique key points of your company?

Our company works on 4 principles:

- Contemporary designs for contemporary interiors
- Sustaining Traditions
- Adding Value (to traditional designs and finishes and techniques and creating products that are up to date with time)
- Creating a global market for African contemporary cultural craftsmanship and designs.

Based on Avana’s revenue sharing model and our efforts to empower craftsmen and build capabilities in this sector, the Government of Cote d’Ivoire has recognised our efforts and the Ministry of Commerce, Crafts and Promotion of SMEs has signed a partnership convention with Avana Lifestyle Africa SARL.

How is Avana Africa different from the existing craft promoters?

Avana Africa offers products that are a combination of the ‘past and the present’ of Africa. While we retain original cultural designs and histories, for instance the Tabouret (or a raised stool) we have bettered the raw finishing, created uniform geometric patterns, sanded and polished the product with modern polishes instead of traditional colours. The Tabouret was last glamorised by Daenerys Targaryen of the Game of Thrones fame, which was used in her Special Counsel Hall. The existing brands/ retailers/ individual interior designers in similar domain make furniture of either contemporary, or modern, or renaissance style or some similar popular category or completely traditional style like the Indian Rajasthani or Karnataka furniture, globally, if you see, culturally the Moroccan or Tunisian furniture styles exist, but they are hard-core traditional and not ‘contemporarised authentic cultural designs,’ like a category that we are trying to forge in. There is an evident gap in the market which we are targeting to cover.

We essentially do 5 major things:

- We sustain African traditions by using authentic cultural designs, but we add value to traditional handcrafted craftsmanship, by creating better finished products that can have a contemporary value for the consumer.
- We are empowering craftsmen by financing basic hand-held machinery to help save time and get better results; we are also building capacities by training artisans and craftsmen in several areas fundamental to essentially helping them generate better incomes. 
- We work on a revenue sharing model, where the artisans gain a second benefit working with us.
- We are in talks with 2 orphanages in Abidjan to train children in the art of sculpting who were orphaned due to war in this country in 2010-11. We believe that art can bring in a lot of tranquillity to disturbed minds and specially, in the case of children who are left with horrid memories of having lost their parents, it is very important to give them a reason to be positively included in the society. 
- We are creating a global market for African contemporary products. 

Do you think there is a need to do more in this area? What do you have in mind? 

There is a huge gap in the market and this entire category is missing. While our efforts will surely lead to making the category popular, I largely wish to increase sustainable incomes for the creators of these crafts and make them aware of the larger market that lies beyond the waters. To be very true, when I work with artisans in villages, I hear their horrid stories from days of slavery and their morbid fear of the water and the white skins. However, as an effort to leave the unpleasant past in the past, and move ahead with hope, and to let them know that globalisation and modern days are beyond possessing just smart phones (which have inundated the African market,) Avana Africa is traveling to Los Angeles and New York with 3 artisans who have been handpicked, based on their knowledge, skill sets and their potential to train other artisans. We are currently focusing on the US market and plan to launch the brand in LA. 

Tell us about the funding status. 

It is entirely a self-funded business. We did have the option to approach World Bank and African Development Bank, besides a whole host of private banks as well. But, we have chosen to keep the business funding with us right now, due to the very volatile and unpredictable artisanal sector. 

What challenges are you facing in running your business?

This entire artisanal sector in these developing countries, though extremely poor, and in need of funding and help, is hugely unprofessional because they have never worked in any other circumstances. There is no sense of commitment and urgency and a sense of responsibility towards deliveries. The risk in this business is huge, which just gets compounded with the failure of the government to contribute to the development of the sector. 

How do you look at expansion?

Our expansion strategy in 2017 is to target US (New York, LA, San Francisco primarily) and creating brand visibility and awareness in the US market. Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, participation in leading global exhibitions, organising exhibition-cum-sales and private exhibitions, client-based marketing (exclusively for interior designers and interior design firms) and online retail (through company website and partnership with other online platforms and marketplaces.) Our expansion strategy for 2018 is to be formalised based on response of 1st year. The target is physical retail with partnerships with leading retail firms.