‘Ethical business practices have always helped in scaling growth’

A business round table, which was held at the first edition of 'Pride of India Brands: The Best of Bharat Conference & Awards 2022', saw a stellar panel that boasted some of the most successful names behind a few of India's most popular brands. The session, which traced the journey of these indigenous brands from a homegrown business to top sellers, was attended by Arjun Ranga, MD, Cycle Pure Agarbathies; CK Kumaravel, Co-Founder & CEO, Naturals Salons & Spa; Nirupam Sahay, ED & CEO, Lighting-Consumer Durables, Surya Roshini; V Noushad, MD, Walkaroo International. The session was moderated by Naziya Alvi Rahman, Editor, exchange4media.

The panelists kick-started the session with the stories of their brands’ inception and then moved on to the challenges they faced in the highly competitive market. Ranga said, "It is an honour to be recognised as a Bharat brand. My grandfather N Ragarao was the true entrepreneur in the family. He came from a very humble background in Madurai district. Our family legacy boasts either purohits or teachers. My grandfather lost his father in 1920 during the great plague and life had been a struggle for him. He would buy sweets from the wholesale market and sell them outside his school to pay his fees. But he was a man who dared to dream and when he got an opportunity to move out of his village, he went to work as a bookkeeper. He then moved to Coorg as an accountant in one of the consolidated coffee industries”.

“Post India's independence, he decided to start his own journey. With only his meager savings in hand, he left his family and moved to Mysore and started the family agarbatti business in 1948. Quickly, he realised that to sell a brand, you need core competence. He decided to make 'fragrance creation' key and set up a fragrance creation lab. Thinking of a brand, he wanted a brand that everyone in the country would understand, immaterial of their background. Now in 1940, everyone knew what a cycle was; it was an aspirational product. So, he coined 'cycle pure agarbatti, as affordable as a cycle'. And that is how he started the brand. Today, it is synonymous with prayer, spirituality and well-being. Ethical business practices were always the core of the business and that's one of the reasons why we were able to scale as well into the third generation of the family", he added.

Sahay elaborated, "It was started by BD Agarwal, the founder and chairman. It started with steel pipes in 1973. About 10 years later, lights were introduced. The company is in its third generation now and they have operated in fairly diverse businesses - steel pipes, lights and fans and appliances. But in each one of them, the core has remained the same - focus on quality and innovation. And in the case of lighting and consumer durables, the real focus is on semi-urban and rural India. So, the real Bharat, which is our strength in terms of distribution, is difficult to replicate."

Noushad’s family already has a footwear business but it was their desire to move to the mass market that led them to think of Walkaroo. He said, "So, we created a new brand to cater to a wider audience and export also. So, in 2012, we started with one plant in Andhra Pradesh and in 2013 we had another plant in Coimbatore and then we kept expanding. This year, we are planning a unit in Rajasthan. After starting, we conducted a POV to assess consumer needs. We studied the behaviour of people - they are not content and want constant change. And fashion is so important so we want to change very fast. So now we are launching around 50 designs every month and withdrawing the same number."

Speaking on the market situation for their business segments when they started and the challenges or opportunities they had to face, Ranga said, "Each generation faces specific challenges. If you look at the time of my grandfather, Agarbatti was itself not a glamorous business. He would recount times when our managers could not get brides as they were working in an agarbatti company. That was the challenge that he faced. His generation had its own challenges - government regulations, bureaucracy, getting licenses for importing raw materials. Then, when my father and uncles took over the business it was about scaling the business, growth, following ethical business practices, communicating the value systems that have been passed down from generations, maintaining financial discipline and so on, When I came in 22 years ago, the challenges were entirely different. The government had liberalised, natural materials were available and supply chain integration was already possible. So, I had to focus predominantly on the value chain and building our distribution network and getting our product to market and consumers across the country. The biggest challenge for me today is to manage our people and scale our growth. Innovation has never been a challenge as it is in the brand ethos for us."

Sahay narrated his side of the story, "When we started lighting back in 1983, there was one large MNC that had been in India for a long time and had a significant presence. And there were a couple of Indian brands already present in that space, So, the real job for us over the years has been to make that transformation across technologies. In '83 it was about GLS bulbs and tubelights then moving to CFL and then to LED. To make that transition and ensure that we stayed ahead of the market and remain relevant, that has been the real story."

The lifestyle industry was considered to be a taboo industry in 2000, pointed out Kumaravel, who believes that "we are a bi-product industry of a larger revolution created by the Narayana Murtys and Azim Premjis of the world". He elaborated, "In 1947 the freedom fighters got India her political freedom, in 1991 Manmohan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao gave us economic freedom. After 2000, India's options grew and people were spoilt for choices. Also, suddenly the first salary of the daughter is more than the last salary of the father and the young generation have got a lot of disposable income, which they want to spend on lifestyle industries, which is where salons, real estate, automobiles and F&B operate. That way, we are very lucky to have entered the business at that point. When we started, we knew nothing of the business and one of the big advantages is that if you don't know the rules, you can merrily make your own."