Making umbrellas to packaging: How Vimal Kedia made Manjushree Technopack a Rs 360 crore firm
From making umbrellas in Guwahati to packaging in Bangalore, Vimal Kedia has made more than one successful transition. Today, Manjushree Technopack is a Rs 360 crore listed company.
It wasn't the entrepreneurial zeal, but circumstances, that forced me to set up my own venture. I was barely 22, a fresh graduate from Assam University when I had to support my family because the flour mill, in which my father was a minor shareholder, suffered huge losses. The business idea virtually rained down on me. Since the north-eastern states witness heavy rainfall, I decided to tap the growing demand for umbrellas in the region.
My grandfather had gifted a 1,500 sq ft space in Guwahati to my mother and I decided to use it as a workshop to assemble umbrellas. Meanwhile, my father sold his stake in the mill and loaned a part of the proceeds, Rs 50,000, to me. Four months later, in September 1977, I launched the Rhino brand of umbrellas—after the pachyderm known for its strength and ruggedness—and registered my venture as Vimal and Company.
I hired nearly 25 people, including three office staffers and eight marketing personnel, and invested Rs 10,000 in a small stitching machine. I would purchase the raw material from Kolkata and get the stitching done at the workshop, producing nearly 300 umbrellas a day. However, since we had started operations after the monsoon, we found no buyers in the intial days. Eventually, it was location that worked in our favour.
The workshop was at Fancy Bazaar, which was the heart of the biggest cloth market in Assam, and crowd thronging the area formed my customer base. Despite this, I struggled for the first six months as I found it difficult to pay the salaries to staff and had to take an additional loan of around Rs 2 lakh from my cousins. I also applied for a business loan of Rs 4 lakh from a public-sector bank, but it came through only a year later.
My big breakthrough was orchestrated by my manager, who helped me get in touch with Sudhanshu Dutta, a small umbrella manufacturer. Dutta sourced cloth and other parts from Guwahati, but when we gave him a better offer, we landed a deal worth Rs 20,000 for material for around 1,200 umbrellas. Dutta also helped us get more deals. To attract more takers, we also offered discounts of 25-35% in off-season sales. The fact that we delivered all orders during the rainy season, irrespective of when it was placed, also helped generate business. At the end of the first year, we posted a turnover of Rs 10 lakh.
However, before the year was out, I was booked under the Essential Commodities Actbecause, as per law, a licence was needed to import umbrella cloth from outside the state. For two years, I wasted considerable time and money on lawyers and legal proceedings, an experience that drummed in the need to be aware of legal procedures.
My grandfather had gifted a 1,500 sq ft space in Guwahati to my mother and I decided to use it as a workshop to assemble umbrellas. Meanwhile, my father sold his stake in the mill and loaned a part of the proceeds, Rs 50,000, to me. Four months later, in September 1977, I launched the Rhino brand of umbrellas—after the pachyderm known for its strength and ruggedness—and registered my venture as Vimal and Company.
I hired nearly 25 people, including three office staffers and eight marketing personnel, and invested Rs 10,000 in a small stitching machine. I would purchase the raw material from Kolkata and get the stitching done at the workshop, producing nearly 300 umbrellas a day. However, since we had started operations after the monsoon, we found no buyers in the intial days. Eventually, it was location that worked in our favour.
The workshop was at Fancy Bazaar, which was the heart of the biggest cloth market in Assam, and crowd thronging the area formed my customer base. Despite this, I struggled for the first six months as I found it difficult to pay the salaries to staff and had to take an additional loan of around Rs 2 lakh from my cousins. I also applied for a business loan of Rs 4 lakh from a public-sector bank, but it came through only a year later.
My big breakthrough was orchestrated by my manager, who helped me get in touch with Sudhanshu Dutta, a small umbrella manufacturer. Dutta sourced cloth and other parts from Guwahati, but when we gave him a better offer, we landed a deal worth Rs 20,000 for material for around 1,200 umbrellas. Dutta also helped us get more deals. To attract more takers, we also offered discounts of 25-35% in off-season sales. The fact that we delivered all orders during the rainy season, irrespective of when it was placed, also helped generate business. At the end of the first year, we posted a turnover of Rs 10 lakh.
However, before the year was out, I was booked under the Essential Commodities Actbecause, as per law, a licence was needed to import umbrella cloth from outside the state. For two years, I wasted considerable time and money on lawyers and legal proceedings, an experience that drummed in the need to be aware of legal procedures.
In 1978, we set up another brand, Khamba Thoibi, to sell umbrellas in Manipur. Inspired by a local epic love story, it caught the public imagination and business was brisk. Five years later, we decided to make plastic bags, given the huge demand not only in Assam but the entire Northeast. This is because all the industries had to source them from Kolkata. I had already established strong contacts with various tea gardens through my umbrella business, so pushing another product would have been easy. So I invested Rs 15 lakh to buy plastic and bag manufacturing machines and electrical cutters, and set up an office in a 5,000 sq ft rented space in Guwahati. We registered it asManjushree Plastics after my deceased sister. By 1987, we had scaled up the operations, so we formed a private limited company and renamed it Manjushree Extrusions.
In the early 1990s, as insurgency peaked in Assam, I realised that the growth prospects were limited. So, in 1994, we decided to shift to Bangalore, but did not sell the Guwahati operations till 2002. We bought land for Rs 25 lakh, but being cash-strapped, we decided to go public. In September 1995, we listed the firm as Manjushree Extrusions Limited.
To set up a plant in Bangalore, we invested Rs 7 crore, of which Rs 5 crore was raised from the public. The plant makes pet bottles, which are supplied to cola firms.
In 2010, the firm was renamed Manjushree Technopack. We have 800 employees, are listed on the BSE/NSE, and our turnover for 2012-13 was 360 crore. However, my biggest achievement has been the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award handed over by the President, in 1998. I also take pride in the Packaging Heritage Museum in Bangalore, which was set up in 2010 and showcases the evolution of packaging.
In the early 1990s, as insurgency peaked in Assam, I realised that the growth prospects were limited. So, in 1994, we decided to shift to Bangalore, but did not sell the Guwahati operations till 2002. We bought land for Rs 25 lakh, but being cash-strapped, we decided to go public. In September 1995, we listed the firm as Manjushree Extrusions Limited.
To set up a plant in Bangalore, we invested Rs 7 crore, of which Rs 5 crore was raised from the public. The plant makes pet bottles, which are supplied to cola firms.
In 2010, the firm was renamed Manjushree Technopack. We have 800 employees, are listed on the BSE/NSE, and our turnover for 2012-13 was 360 crore. However, my biggest achievement has been the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award handed over by the President, in 1998. I also take pride in the Packaging Heritage Museum in Bangalore, which was set up in 2010 and showcases the evolution of packaging.
Source : By Amit Shanbaug, ET Bureau
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