You’ll want to light a fire, grab a blanket, and cuddle up – if you see the products designed by TOFT, that is.
Fourteen years of friendship is not very unusual but a business venture out of it would not be a normal thing. We – Maria and Sajimma became friends by chance when we started our career as IT professionals, then became roommates and parted our ways after two years. Little did we know then that we would end up in the same city with our families after 12 years. Our friendship has grown beyond us and our kids are soulmates now.
TOFT is the byproduct of this friendship.
Decorating homes was one of the strongest passions we had in common. Home decor used to fascinate us. We started decorating our own homes for Christmas. And if we couldn’t get the right decor, be it cushion covers or table linen, we would get the fabric and design it ourselves. We were searching for ways to make our homes beautiful. The hunt for designer linens for our own home towns went on but we never found one which gave us complete satisfaction. This led us to design most of the linen we use at home.
Friends and family always appreciated our designs, which in turn led us to start designing for our near and dear ones. It started as a passion, but developed into a business venture even without our knowledge.
The idea has been in our mind for a long time and I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say we decided to name it as TOFT around 3 years ago. With a little knowledge of designing and absolutely no knowledge of running a business we decided to follow our passion, when people began to share that they loved our designs.
Both of us had no expertise, one of us has a Masters in Statistics and the other is a post graduate in Business Administration with experience in IT.
We started in the month of September 2020, with a plan to expand gradually as we both had time constraints. But the reactions we got were so overwhelming that we had to pick up the pace. The few bed linens we designed were sold like hot cakes and we couldn’t resist our desire to design more.
We started with just bed linens, planning to widen the categories of products gradually and our customers were mostly friends and family.
The turning point was when we shared our initially designed linens in a social media portal and we were approached by a prominent house magazine to feature our work. We were totally thrilled and designed few linens for bed and table, runners, curtains and hand/bath towels. Even before the feature was published, the linens designed for it were sold out. This was the ultimate motivation for us to move forward.
We are currently making bedlinen, table linens, cushion covers and curtains, all designed in house and open to customisation as part of our brand. We have plans to widen our products.
We source our fabrics from all around India and have our premium collection designed from imported fabric. Our products are mostly designer pieces and so are not produced in bulk. We design exclusive table linen for tables of any sizes and shapes. The products are launched as a series and we have planned for a launch each month. We sell across India and have plans to widen our reach to Middle East too. Currently we are operating from our homes and when the current Covid situations straighten up, we have plan to have a small décor shops for the customers to have a feel of our products.
We have almost crossed 120 orders in 2 months’ and our customers motivated us to move forward as days went by. All this would have been still a dream if not for God’s blessings and the great support from our super-busy husbands.
We are currently working on our Christmas designs and are too excited to release it on November 20, 2020; our very first TOFT Christmas. We have planned only very few products but with exclusive designs for our dear customers. Christmas is just a reason and our dream to decorate each of the homes given to us, like our own – is never ending.
By Maria Jose & Sajimma Joseph
Friends and business partners, Maria and Sajimma live in Kerala, India’s Southern state. Maria is from Pala and married to Jose, a Chartered Accountant. They have two children, Martha and David. Sajimma is from Kanjirappally and married to Ajith, who holds a managerial job. They have two daughters – Christine and Isabel. Follow TOFT on Instagram here: https://bit.ly/3pQ7tmy or call 0091 77362 16364.
