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: couldn’t have been more spoilt for choice. There are side, back and foot jets to massage your body and also a disinfectant system.

The sky definitely seems the limit feels Varun Gupta, director, Bathline India who counts Welcomgroup, Radisson, Marriot, Oberoi, Taj as his clients. “Ours was the only brand Sheraton trusted when they hosted President Bill Clinton, President Vladimir Putin and PM Tony Blair,” he proudly shares. “Pricing was a big issue and people were not very sure about the quality of imported products. Around 2005, things started looking up and the industry recorded close to 50-60% growth. Things got even better in 2007-08 when the growth rate touched 110%; thanks to the booming real estate industry,” he adds. Kasch, Knief are some of the brands available in this boutique store that specialises in Bespoke concepts. Sharad Mathur, vice president, Kohler, on the other hand puts the “fairly bullish market at 300%.” The brand is already planning a manufacturing unit in Gujarat with an investment of Rs 900 crore. And that’s when you are not even looking at the unorganised sector. The size of the organised sector alone can be easily pegged “at Rs 3,000 crore,” according to Abhinav Khandelwal, director, FCML Bathrooms.

FCML too opened its first flagship bathroom store in 2002 with brands like Master, Tosco Quattro, Zazzerri, Art ceram. “The nouveau riche form a major part of our clientele. They are big spenders,” says Khandelwal.

Little wonder the industry is attracting a host of new players like Manish Mehta. Mehta entered the market six months back with a range of easy-to-fit vanity cabinets and is all set to ‘expand his portfolio’. “These are complete made-to-measure bath solutions from UK. What would have earlier taken not less than a week to install can be now put up in a day,” says Mehta, owner of The Empire Line. The gradual shift to design can probably be traced back to the time when people began opting for coloured bathroom fixtures over staid white. Later came the concept of ‘open bathrooms.’