These Indian brands are making a difference in their fields - top SMB stories of the week
This week, SMBStory brings to you the stories of Indian brands that are excelling in their own field.
From apparel, jewellery to footwear, the Indian brands are excelling in meeting the taste and preferences of their customers, while generating good employment for the natives. Here are the top stories of Indian brands that SMBStory covered this week.
Malabar Golds & Diamonds
MP Ahammed, Founder, Malabar Gold & Diamonds
Born into a family of merchants and landlords, Ahammed began his entrepreneurial odyssey at the age of 20 by setting up a spice trade venture in 1979. He used to trade cardamom, pepper, and coconut to the retailers of Kozhikode (now Calicut) in Kerala. However, he soon realised that the trading business will not become big.
In an interaction with SMBStory, KP Narayanan, Media and Marketing Head of Malabar Gold & Diamonds, says,
“At a very young age and just Class 12 passed, MP Ahammed imbibed rare and precious business lessons that no top management institute could have imparted in a classroom. However, he wasn’t settling for the same and wanted to do something bigger.”
Sharing one of the episodes from Ahammed’s life, Narayanan says that in the early years of his business journey, a retailer in Mumbai owed a hefty payment to Ahammed. However, due to a financial crunch, he was unable to clear the dues and was planning to shut his business. The retailer promised Ahammed that he would repay the dues by selling his brand.
The episode was very overwhelming for Ahammed but it was also a cognitive one. He discovered the value of forming a brand, and soon he realised that he needed to form one of his own. But not in the spice business. He took a leap in an altogether different journey and founded Malabar Golds & Diamonds in 1993.
Cantabil
Deepak Bansal, Director, Cantabil
After completing his graduation from the Kurukshetra University, Harayana, Vijay Bansal entered his family-owned business of FMCG products around the 1970s. He was brought up in Jind, a small yet the oldest city in Haryana. Though things were running smoothly, Vijay didn’t want to settle in the same business. He had big visions, so he took a leap of faith and moved to the national capital Delhi, with high hopes to make his name in the industry.
In an interaction with SMBStory, Deepak Bansal, Vijay’s son and a second-generation entrepreneur says,
“Around the 1980s, my father moved to Delhi. The city and culture were completely different for him. And, it was out of his comfort zone that he established Retail, which is now one of the leading Indian brands in the apparel industry.”
Heel & Buckle London
Shashank Arya, Executive Director of DAR Group
Shashank Arya has always been passionate about shoes. This passion has led him to launch Heel & Buckle London, which he aspires would become one of the most sought-after brands for premium footwear and accessories, catering to modern men and women of society.
Shashank comes from a business family. After completing his schooling and graduation from Chennai, he moved to Delhi where he joined the family business. The DAR Group, founded by Shashank's maternal uncle, CM Rajgarhia, is well known for its real estate and manufacturing arms. Joining an established group (as an Executive Director) did not require many changes, but diversification into other verticals like fashion was waiting in the wings to happen.
That’s how the opportunity to launch Heel & Buckle London landed as a subsidiary of the DAR Group. Shashank says, “There was always an idea of connecting with an international brand or starting something off of our own, and so we formed the brand Heel & Buckle London under the DAR Group”
Heel & Buckle London launched its multi-brand footwear and accessories store, Berleigh, in 2017 in Mumbai.
Other SMBStories of the week
Medall
Arjun Ananth, CEO, Medall
Over the last few years, India’s middle-class expanded and saw rising disposable incomes, enabling them to spend on healthcare. This meant big opportunities for the sector, especially for companies in the diagnostic services industry.
In 2009, serial entrepreneur Raju Venkataraman started in Chennai to capitalise on this growing demand for diagnostic services in India. His vision was to provide radiology imaging services and other diagnostic services to customers, and to provide a high level of diagnostic confidence to referral physicians.
Arjun Ananth, Medall’s current CEO, says, “Raju and private equity firm Peepul Capital came together over 10 years ago to start Medall. The company was started when Raju acquired Precision Diagnostics in Chennai, a leading imaging and diagnostics centre in the city.”
Over the last decade, India witnessed a rise in health consciousness and improved awareness of chronic diseases. Hence, diagnostics became critical to healthcare services as accurate diagnosis and accurate treatment go hand-in-hand.
Riding this wave, Medall claims it has established itself as India’s fourth-largest diagnostic services provider and the largest integrated diagnostics provider. The 2,500-employee firm says it has captured over 40 percent of South India’s market share for diagnostic services.
Since 2009, Raju led the company to these heights as its CEO and MD. Before Medall, the IIT-Madras alumni had been involved in several entrepreneurial ventures, including Sherpa Business Solutions in the US, and technology companies RevIT and Vetri Systems in India.
Arjun, who was on the company’s board as a Peepul Capital representative, took over as the CEO in November 2019.
Prodi
Founder of Prodi, Ritkrit Jain
After founding an events management company with two friends, Ritkrit realised that his true calling was in the world of design. The desire to pursue the stream got him selected for a master’s course at the Dumas Academy in Milan, Italy.
In Italian, the word Prodi means "a group of brave and courageous people," Ritkrit says. He adds that the name embodies the very spirit of the startup ecosystem wherein entrepreneurs refuse to give up despite failing repeatedly.
Founded in 2016 by Ritkrit Jain, the Noida-based company is a specialised interior design firm, with a mission to not only cater to the design needs but also, accomplish execution and procurement aspects to realise the design.
(Edited by Suman Singh)
