SMBWrap: Tapping the fast-growing kids’ retail sector, and other top SMB stories of the week
This week, SMBStory covered business journeys of women entrepreneurs who aim to fill the gap in the kid’s retail segment.
In a world where attention spans keep getting shorter, consumer companies have had to reinvent themselves and carve a niche in order to stand out. While many have turned to specialise in one aspect of retail, others have broadened their offerings.
Irrespective of what strategy retailers have chosen to boost sales, one thing they have all realised is that adults are not the only ones making purchasing decisions anymore, and that catering to one particular financial, or age group, is not prudent.
Kids retail is an up and coming sector which has seen appetite growing at least threefold, according to a 2019 Kaspersky report, and the industry is showing no signs of slowing down in the near future.
This week, SMBStory covered the business journeys of several women entrepreneurs who aim to aim to disrupt the kids’ retail segment. Here are their stories.
Popcorn Furniture
started 20 years ago when Deepika Goyal went shopping for her kids, and realised that there weren’t many brands making kid-friendly furniture.
“Whatever was available had pointed edges and were sharp. They weren’t the kind you would want to use for your kids,” she recalls.
Popcorn Furniture has become a well-known name in India, as well as around the world. The company, run by Deepika and her husband Ashok Goyal, began by supplying basic furniture to schools in Delhi-NCR. It has now become a one-stop solution for many educational institutions.
The company designs, manufactures, and installs furniture for schools and colleges, while also catering to infrastructural requirements of playgrounds, gymnasiums, cafeterias, and dormitories.
It sources raw materials from India and manufactures the products at its unit in Gurgaon. All the production is done using machines imported from Germany.
Popcorn Furniture’s clientele of 8,000 schools in India includes the likes of Shiv Nadar School, Amity International School, and The British School. It also exports furniture to schools in more than eight countries, and has retail outlets in Delhi, Dubai, and Cape Town.
While Deepika declined to share details about the company’s revenue, she claims Popcorn Furniture is growing 15 to 20 percent, every year.
Veronna
‘Do what you like, like what you do’, goes an age-old adage. But not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to do what they like.
Veronna Damani is a lucky person though - fashion was her calling, and she followed her passion after an advertising internship left her wanting more.
“While I was doing my internship in the US, a colleague of mine helped me discover my love for fashion. She told me that she noticed a flair in me for styling. To my surprise, she was not wrong. I realised that since my childhood, I’ve always had a love for fashion,” says Veronna.
After graduating, Veronna eventually landed a job at ELLE magazine, after which she says her life changed completely and she founded ‘veronna’.
‘veronna’ is a kids-wear label, currently catering to little girls between the ages of six months – four years. It is an Indian fashion label bringing a European style aesthetic to baby and kids-wear in the country.
Other to SMB picks of the week
Jaipur Watch Company
Gaurav Mehta is an 'accidental' watch manufacturer. After obtaining a master’s degree in risk management from the UK, he ran an insurance brokerage firm for some time.
However, after he failed to find satisfaction in what he was doing, he returned to his original passion — watches and coins.
Combining both these interests, Gaurav started the
in 2013.Headquartered in Jaipur, the watch brand combines luxury and tradition in manufacturing watches, inspired by coins from the British era.
Donear Industries
The late Vishwanath Agarwal was a textile trader for 18 years. He built a strong network in the industry and was also on the boards of some Indian textile businesses.
In the 1970s, Vishwanath saw that the textile industry in India was poised to become more enterprising and attain a global status. At the same time, he was also facing strategic and management challenges with the companies he was associated with as a board member.
One day, after a particularly discordant board meeting, he decided to venture into the growing textile industry himself. He made up his mind to start his own textile manufacturing facility, and founded Donear Industries in Mumbai in 1977.
“My father was a visionary. Tapping into the growing market for textile, Donear became a household name along with other Indian brands. We became known for pioneering different kinds of fabric, continuous product development, and strong marketing,” says Rajendra Agarwal, Vishwanath’s son, and the current Managing Director of the company.
Today, Donear Industries is a well-recognised clothing and textile business brand in India. It claims to have a turnover of Rs 1,300 crore, and a team strength of 5,000 employees.
Bhartiya Group
Every successful business is made with one courageous decision after another. Take Snehdeep Aggarwal, for example, who built a huge business empire trusting his instincts and hard work.
Born and raised in Amritsar, Punjab, Snehdeep comes from a family of traders who dealt in dry fruits and spices. Young, filled with passion to make his own identity and not join the family business, Snehdeep started a carpet business in 1979, after borrowing Rs 50,000 from his father.
Little did he know this small enterprise would turn into a mammoth business across fashion, real estate, and more – becoming one of India’s largest businesses, the Bhartiya Group.
In an interaction with SMBStory, his son Arjun Aggarwal, says,
“My father started selling carpets out of the trunk of his car. Gradually, he ventured into exports. This is when he realised that India has a lot of potential in the export segment and so, taking bold steps, he diversified into the leather business, and since then, there has been no looking back.”
Edited by Aparajita Saxena