The Castro-Hoodies group launched today (Sunday) the new housewares and lifestyle chain Castro Home, in the presence of Shlomit Malka, the presenter of the new brand.
Also present at the launch: Jonathan Margie and Dorit Ravlis, the presenters of Castro, Shirley Bourgeois, Liran Kohner, Orna Banai and more.
The first store was opened in the Tel Aviv City Garden in an area of about 200 square meters with an investment of about three million shekels.
At the same time, 15 more Castro Home stores opened today.
Entering the field of housewares and lifestyle and opening the new chain of stores, Castro invested about NIS 30 million.
The chain offers a wide range of housewares, serving utensils and home textiles.
In addition, as part of an exclusive collaboration, it will be possible to obtain furniture from Status, the furniture brand, which offers up-to-date designs at prices starting at NIS 450.
The price range of Castro Home ranges from NIS 6.90 to NIS 899.
Launch of Castro Home, without credit
Ron Rotter, CEO of the Castro-Hoodies Group:
“This is a very exciting day for me and for all of us at the Castro-Hoodies Group and for me in particular.
I am glad that my grandmother Lina Castro, the founder of Castro, was privileged to be here today to see the continued development and launch of the brand.
The brand was built in light of the values that my parents have instilled in the company for decades. "
Rotter told Israel Today: "Our goal is just like any of our brand has been in the past, and that is to lead the market. Today we are opening 14 branches including an online site, with ten locations in the pipeline that will open in the coming year. I think if you look at the launches "Of brands in Israel, there is no brother or sister to a brand that has developed 14 stores and an online site.
You are launching Castro Home today late, after other chains have long since launched, and you are saying that your goal is to lead the market. How will you manage to do that?
"Even when we launched the children's field there was much tougher competition from home, with all the international and local players in full deployment. The situation in this market is competitive but not like in the children's field, and we still entered the children's field successfully and became the leaders. 2011, and today is the leading eyewear brand in Israel in a competitive market.
"I can say that one of the responses from the parties we worked with to enable everything that requires the approval of the Standards Institute, was that there is no company in Israel that is as strict as we were on this issue and meeting quality goals."
Launch of Castro Home, without credit
On the other hand, there is a strengthening in this area of stock networks. Fox, for example, will also soon launch the Greek jumbo network. Are you not afraid of it?
"Absolutely not. We have an answer in Urbanica that also has Urbanica Home and it addresses the Stoke chains in terms of price. I think as a group we have two complementary and parallel offers today. One is Castro Home, which offers prices that are higher than the Stoke chains but in higher qualities. High and in a much higher style, and Urbanica which gives an excellent offer of value for money. Each competes in a different category. In Urbanica our experience is much better than the stock chains, because it is in malls and not in places I forget. The other reason is that we come from the lifestyle and experience In our case, it is not that of a warehouse on which we threw goods at good prices. "
Is this the first swallow in terms of the Castro brand for a field that is not fashion?
"This is the first time we are not in the fashion field, but in the group we have a growing sector and a relatively new cosmetics sector with Kiko, which we are now running back with. Because of the corona we slowed down a bit. We are in a very accelerated development of Urbanica that provides a solution to the stock field, and that is not the last word. We also have plans in the field of sports. There is something to look forward to, there will be surprises. "
Launch of Castro Home, without credit
Gabi Rotter referred to the differentiation of the chain:
"We wanted to make Castro Home. We are a fashion house. There is no shortage of goods in the market and we are not the first in this market. On the other hand, it has to be designed and very high style. "In treasures and property, there is a selection of production sources from all over the world - Portugal, Germany, Turkey, India and more."
Will there be an expansion to more categories at Castro Home?
"We have a learning curve to go through, we did four classes in the home field. I have no doubt that in each class we will learn and discover things in the process. Let's not forget that we are in the era of Corona, where a lot of things need to be done remotely. "In my opinion, this is a tremendous achievement. For the past year and a half, we have been busy with the question of how we get out of the crisis, the closures and the corona that has been forced on us."
