StoreMore: The anything and everything store
(StoreMore runs on the premise…)
During the early days of StoreMore, the founders ran an advertisement campaign on a popular online classified advertisement site, saying - 'Why sell when you can store?' The cheeky campaign was a success as India's first storage service caught the people's fancy.
The idea for storage services first came to co-founder Pooja Kothari after she read articles by Norm Brodsky in the US edition of the magazine she was to launch in India. "Norm Brodsky runs a document management business in Manhattan and he was trying to sell that business and was penning his experience of selling for the magazine," says Kothari.
Kothari's husband Anil Wilson, who was in the investment banking sector, loved the idea of storage service and decided to try it out. "The idea for StoreMore came from a magazine column and we started exploring and looking around to see if it would work in India," says Kothari. The duo roped in Nitin Dhawan, a former colleague of Kothari, as the third co-founder of the company.
After due diligence, it was decided that in its first avatar a service that would allow anyone and everyone to store in a warehouse would not make sense since the Indian market was not ready for a service like this. "Corporates are easier to find, get convinced and get hold of," says Kothari. The trio decided to merely operate in the records management business for corporates and Star Records Management Pvt. Ltd was born in May 2010.
For the Record:
"We studied the self-storage model in the US and found that it was more of a 'do it yourself' model where you took a space in a warehouse, arranged your own transport to transfer your goods to the warehouse, lock it up once done and at the end of it pay a rent to use the warehouse. In India it was clear that the do it yourself concept will not work," says Dhawan.
Dhawan adds that for starters not anyone can drive a commercial vehicle in India. "In the US anyone can hire and then drive a truck to move goods. The storage companies at times rent out trucks to move goods. In India you need to have a commercial vehicle license to drive such a vehicle," says Dhawan.
Dhawan says for this simple reason they decided to start the document management company in a small 3500 square feet warehouse that could hold 8000-10000 boxes. "The first box for storage came in October 2010 and then we started getting requests from the heads at these originations to store their personal belongings for some time," says Kothari.
For the first couple of such storage, the startup did not charge anything and was more an extension of the corporate relationship that existed. "A friend's house was getting renovated and he requested us to store his household products at our store house. His belongings stayed at our warehouse for about six months and that is when we realized we could launch such a service on a chargeable basis," says Kothari.
After a year Star Records Management launched its paid individual storage services in the name of StoreMore in September 2011, but did not actively market it till January 2013. "Last 12 months is when we have earnestly worked on this concept. With a startup there is always so much to do and we did not have the resources to speed things up," says Kothari.
Started at an initial investment of Rs 30 lakh from personal savings, the company has since then invested heavily in setting up the warehouse, inventory management software, transportation vehicle and manpower. "We sometimes hire people on a temporary basis to load goods," says Dhawan.
Kothari says people in this business are generally the packers and movers who treat this as an incidental service. "StoreMore on the other hand knows what it means to store and protect documents and household goods. Even before StoreMore we were sure that we are not merely a document storage company, but a document management firm," says Kothari. In March of 2012, the startup got a shot in the arm as the Burman's of Dabur invested an undisclosed amount in the business. "We are currently looking to raise our second round of funding," says Kotahri.
Stock up:
StoreMore runs on the premise that you can store any item of any shape and of any size. Of the things that get very frequently stored with StoreMore are the summer and winter clothes, heaters, quilts, suitcases, entire household items when people are temporarily relocating cities or renovating homes and items for kids. "There are individuals who have chosen to store individual items like a treadmill and in one instance a 100-year-old piano," says Kothari.
StoreMore runs on the premise that you can store any item of any shape and of any size. Of the things that get very frequently stored with StoreMore are the summer and winter clothes, heaters, quilts, suitcases, entire household items when people are temporarily relocating cities or renovating homes and items for kids. "There are individuals who have chosen to store individual items like a treadmill and in one instance a 100-year-old piano," says Kothari.
Kothari says there is also a set of discerning individuals who do not like clutter in their house and love spaces in their homes. "They have a lot of possessions, but do not like all of it to be at home," says Kothari.
StoreMore charges on a per item basis and not on an individual product. StoreMore does not store liquor, valuables (silver coins, currencies), animals, plants, arms and ammunition and jewellery.
For up to five boxes it would cost Rs 100 per month, up to 20 boxes Rs 360 per month, 35 boxes Rs 595 per month and 50 boxes Rs 800 per month. Each additional box will cost Rs 30 per box and additional item is charged Rs 99 per month. Each of this boxes can take about 25-30 sweaters, 40 novels or 2000 A4 sized papers. "We see a lot of people opting for the 20 boxes and the 50 boxes plan. Our pricing is still on the lower side, but this is primarily to get more customers interested in our services," says Kothari.
Burman says it was during this research that he chanced on the team at StoreMore. "We were extremely impressed by their knowledge of the industry and their passion and liked the fact that they want to build the best in this sector by adopting the best practices and latest technology possible," says Burman.
The Challenge:
StoreMore currently suffers from low brand recall. "It is also a matter of remembering StoreMore when the need arises. StoreMore is never an impulse buy and at every step it suffers from an individual's habit of procrastination. Cleaning your house and getting things in order is sometimes the last thing in your agenda," says Kothari.
Dhawan says the current focus is to ramp up marketing efforts and infrastructure so that the startup can offer multiple services and store just about everything. "Market has driven us where we are today. The storage industry does not exist in India, but we feel we have to get to a stage where in future if you have storage need you must think of StoreMore," says Dhawan.
Dhawan says the company wants to be in all the metros by the end of this year and the next city to be operational would be Mumbai, followed by Bangalore. Surprisingly, Dhawan says, there has been a lot of interest from cities like Surat, Jamnagar, Ludhiana and Meerut.
Burman says the team has chosen to take a long-term view on the business—they want to become the leader and pioneer of the industry in India. "I have no doubt in my mind that they will be highly successful and create great value over the long term by providing a pleasurable and worry-free service for their consumers, of which I am pleased to say, I am one," says Burman.
Indian startup offers pay-per-use storage service
For the first time in India, a Noida-based start-up - named StoreMore - has begun providing storage services in the Delhi NCR region.
StoreMore, a company set up by Nitin Dhawan and Pooja Kothari, offers secure storage facilities to businesses and households across 10 locations in Delhi NCR offering a total storage area of over 1 lakh square feet.
The service includes an option for the customer to choose space at one or multiple locations through the StoreMore website using an option called space estimator -- more like booking a hotel room. As part of the service, the company's team will also pack the goods and transport them for safe storage to the facility of the company.
"Our technology platform is the first of its kind in the country. It allows users to book space across multiple locations, and provides cloud-based access to inventory of stored goods for easy re-delivery," StoreMore managing director Kothari told IANS.
It will also, if required by the customer, deliver the goods back to where the customer wants it though the service will be chargeable. The service is charged at a monthly rate of Rs.30 per sq ft, with slight variation for location of the warehouse.
"StoreMore's USP is its flexible, pay-per-use model which has never been applied to warehousing before in India. It does not require any long-term commitments of time, or any security deposits. There are no complicated leases to sign either. Customers pay monthly rent for the amount of space their goods use in a facility," Kothari explained.
Interestingly, the startup does not believe in maintaining its own logistics service.
"We don't want to maintain our own logistics as it kills the efficiency in the system and will burden us with maintenance costs. We have tied up with another startup for the service while just having two delivery trucks in our stable," Kothari said.
The company offers two types of solutions for storage: box storage and pallet storage. The first type offers corrugated boxes for storage of files, documents and small-sized items.
"Each box can hold up to 15 kg to 18 kg of goods. The second type of storage offer space on pallets that can be used to store large-sized items, such as chairs, tables, inventory of goods," Dhawan said.
"We are especially relevant to e-commerce businesses that can store their goods across multiple locations and move closer to their customers, thereby reducing delivery times. What's better, they achieve this without any headaches of managing security or management of inventory," he added.
Consumers can also check a cloud-based inventory of stored goods which makes access and retrieval easier.
StoreMore claims that its facilities are run on systems and processes. Access to storage areas is controlled using a biometric/card-based system along with CCTV cameras monitoring all entry and exit into the area.
"Pest control services every 15 days ensure protection against rodents and pests. These facilities are also protected against fire and elements of nature," Kothari said.
StoreMore Storage Solutions is co-promoted by the family office of Burmans, who own Dabur. Bedrock Ventures is also an investor in the company.
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Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com; http://www.startuptimes.in; http://indiatoday.intoday.in; Anirvan Ghosh; http://forbesindia.com
StoreMore, a company set up by Nitin Dhawan and Pooja Kothari, offers secure storage facilities to businesses and households across 10 locations in Delhi NCR offering a total storage area of over 1 lakh square feet.
The service includes an option for the customer to choose space at one or multiple locations through the StoreMore website using an option called space estimator -- more like booking a hotel room. As part of the service, the company's team will also pack the goods and transport them for safe storage to the facility of the company.
"Our technology platform is the first of its kind in the country. It allows users to book space across multiple locations, and provides cloud-based access to inventory of stored goods for easy re-delivery," StoreMore managing director Kothari told IANS.
It will also, if required by the customer, deliver the goods back to where the customer wants it though the service will be chargeable. The service is charged at a monthly rate of Rs.30 per sq ft, with slight variation for location of the warehouse.
"StoreMore's USP is its flexible, pay-per-use model which has never been applied to warehousing before in India. It does not require any long-term commitments of time, or any security deposits. There are no complicated leases to sign either. Customers pay monthly rent for the amount of space their goods use in a facility," Kothari explained.
Interestingly, the startup does not believe in maintaining its own logistics service.
"We don't want to maintain our own logistics as it kills the efficiency in the system and will burden us with maintenance costs. We have tied up with another startup for the service while just having two delivery trucks in our stable," Kothari said.
The company offers two types of solutions for storage: box storage and pallet storage. The first type offers corrugated boxes for storage of files, documents and small-sized items.
"Each box can hold up to 15 kg to 18 kg of goods. The second type of storage offer space on pallets that can be used to store large-sized items, such as chairs, tables, inventory of goods," Dhawan said.
"We are especially relevant to e-commerce businesses that can store their goods across multiple locations and move closer to their customers, thereby reducing delivery times. What's better, they achieve this without any headaches of managing security or management of inventory," he added.
Consumers can also check a cloud-based inventory of stored goods which makes access and retrieval easier.
StoreMore claims that its facilities are run on systems and processes. Access to storage areas is controlled using a biometric/card-based system along with CCTV cameras monitoring all entry and exit into the area.
"Pest control services every 15 days ensure protection against rodents and pests. These facilities are also protected against fire and elements of nature," Kothari said.
StoreMore Storage Solutions is co-promoted by the family office of Burmans, who own Dabur. Bedrock Ventures is also an investor in the company.
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The Business of Storing
As offices and homes get smaller, Storemore cashes in by offering storage space
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Image: Amit Verma
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Amit Wilson, Founder, Storemore
Thirty-six-year-old Wilson started Reliable Records in early 2010 to store office documents. Along with that he started Storemore, which stores anything in homes that people have no use for, but want to keep anyway. “I’m banking on that sentimental value,” says Wilson, a graduate from IIM Bangalore. The venture took shape when Wilson met Nitin Dhawan, a chartered accountant who worked with Wilson’s wife Pooja Kothari at Mindworks, and they decided to work together. While figures for India are not available, the US industry for storing records has 46,000 storage facilities, covering 2.21 billion square feet. Gross revenues for 2009 were around $22 billion. In just one year of operations, Storemore has managed to break-even, proving there is no shortage of people who are short of space. Today, Storemore has a 7,000 square feet warehouse in Greater Noida, which has a capacity for 20,000 boxes. Each box measures 12x10x15 inches and can store 15 kg of goods. The warehouse can be opened only through fingerprint recognition. It is fitted with sprinklers that spray fire retardant chemicals (a powder) instead of water (as water will soak through the cardboard boxes) in case of a fire. Each box has a bar code that is read by a machine. “This system enables finding anything in an instant,” says Wilson. The company charges Rs. 30 per month per box. The minimum order for companies is 200 boxes. For extra storage, charges are levied per box. There is a fee for delivering the stored content to its owners and for bringing it back to the warehouse. In case the items to be stored do not fit in a box, the company charges Rs. 30 per cubic foot of space. Shruti Tulli, a resident of Mayur Vihar in eastern Delhi, keeps old documents at Storemore and says it gives her peace of mind and the freedom to use the extra space in her apartment. “They used to take up so much space and I would worry about termites destroying the cartons as they lay unused. They would also accumulate dust. Now, when I need them, Storemore delivers them to me on the same day. So, that’s cool,” says Tulli, who has taken a three-year plan for 15 boxes. Currently, Storemore allows customers to store documents, books and toys. By next year, the company plans to accommodate bigger items that might not necessarily fit in a standard box. Wilson, Kothari and Dhawan had raised initial capital to get the company going, and the money came from their own savings and some family members. The company has plans to expand to a space that can store 50,000 boxes. For that, they plan to start talks with venture capitalists and private equity firms by the end of November. This article appeared in the Forbes India magazine issue of 02 December, 2011 |
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