From selling on a bicycle to offering a Rs 5 gel pen to dominate the market, here are this week’s inspiring SMB stories
This week, SMBStory covered stories that had the potential to uplift and spark the entrepreneurship spirit within you.
Success not only means riding on the path of opportunity but also creating one. We bring a wrap of this week’s SMBStory that covered a range of entrepreneurial ideas.
Kankatala Sarees
In the 1930s, Kankatala Appalaraju dropped out of school to work in a small cloth shop in Tuni, Andhra Pradesh. He soon left the shop and started selling clothes to the British at Vizag Railway Station.
This gave him the confidence to pursue something of his own in the textile space. In 1941, he, along with a helper, carried silk sarees on his bicycle and went door to door to sell them.
He started finding a few takers, and decided to further expand his venture by launching a store in Visakhapatnam in 1943.
Over 70 years later, Kankatala Textiles Pvt Ltd has now grown into 11 outlets in south India, and even launched its website in 2017.
Anirudh Kankatala, the third generation entrepreneur doesn’t reveal the group turnover, but adds that the website clocked Rs 12 crore in FY20, and has been growing at 50 percent per annum for the last three years.
Linc Pen & Plastics
A dearth in quality ball pens at an affordable range made Suraj Mal Jalan start Linc Pen & Plastics in 1976.
Suraj Mal invested a few thousand rupees of his savings, and launched the first Linc ball pen for Rs 2 from a small manufacturing facility in Kolkata. Gradually, Linc’s range of pens grew to a handful and they were available across West Bengal.
In over two decades, the company launched a variety of pens in the ball pen and gel pen category, and Deepak Jalan, the second generation entrepreneur joined the business in the 80s.
The company launched the Linc Ocean Gel Pen at Rs 5, which, according to Deepak, was the first gel pen to be sold at such a low price. There were other unexpected dividends of this move.
“We launched the Linc Ocean Gel Pen to go deeper into the market, but to our surprise, it became our biggest hit,” says Deepak.
As Linc steps into its 45th year, it has clocked a turnover of Rs 400 crore in FY20, and is a listed company. Its products are available in 1.5 lakh retail stores throughout the country, while exports reach 40 countries. Subsidiary brands Bensia, Deli, Pentonic, Markline, and others also have a market presence.
Lotus Herbals
Over the last decade, the Indian market has witnessed a sudden shift in consumers moving towards herbal products, and this demand was sensed by Late HJ Kamal Passi, who founded Lotus Herbals Pvt Ltd in 1993 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
A household name today, Lotus Herbals has pioneered several innovative product concepts and formats in the Indian beauty market over the last 28 years. The company clocked Rs 700 crore turnover in FY20.
Unfortunately, Kamal passed away in April 2015, and his son Nitin Passi is carrying forward the business legacy.
For nearly thirty years now, the products of Lotus Herbals have directly reached more than one lakh outlets, and over 15,000 salons in India. Nitin says that the brand’s hottest selling products still remain Safe Sun and White Glow.
Lotus has now ventured into the premium beauty segment with the brand Lotus Organics+ with its organic skin and haircare portfolio. With the advent of digital penetration in India, Lotus started working on its direct-to-customer (D2C) brands, and recently launched Ikkai Beauty and Lotus Botanicals in this segment.
Other top picks of the week:
Digvijaya Herbals
Disha Dinakar and her mother Vijaya Dinakar, have a habit of reading beauty and health products’ labels before buying them. According to Disha — a doctor by profession — these products look aesthetically pleasing but often contain harmful chemicals, as indicated by their labels. She says,
“My mother and I have always been strong believers in organic products and their benefits. We were taken aback to see the harmful chemicals used in a wide range of Indian beauty and health products. This inspired us to start making our own organic herbal products that were 100 percent natural and authentic.”
Disha joined hands with her mother and her father, MN Dinakar Bhat, to launch her own herbal products brand ‘Digvijaya Herbals.’ She started with a small investment of Rs 10,000 in Vittal, Karnataka — a town near Mangaluru — in 2019.
Disha says, “Coming from a family of doctors and ayurvedic practitioners, we launched Digvijaya as a homegrown brand. We also joined hands with a panel of doctors who worked with me on the formulation of our herbal products.”
In a short span of time, the business has boomed for the entrepreneur trio of father, mother, and daughter. The newly-launched herbal brand recorded Rs 1 crore turnover in its first year, and approximately Rs 3 crore in its second year, Disha claims.
At present, Digvijaya Herbals has a range of 140 products, encompassing haircare, skincare, baby care, herbal powders, and more.
Saraf Furniture
Raghunandan Saraf grew up observing his family’s furniture export business as a child. His family has been part of the unorganised furniture industry for almost four decades.
Post his graduation from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, Raghunandan, after returning to his hometown in Sadarshahr, Rajasthan, realised the need to transform his family’s business and the entire furniture industry.
In an effort to bring his family business to the organised sector, Raghunandan launched Saraf Furniture in 2014 as an independent, direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand. In fact, his family business in this space helped him understand the market before launching the company.
At present, the platform claims to offer 6,000 varieties of furniture, ranging from beds, boxes, drawers, tables, and clocks, among others, priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2.8 lakh.
Starting with Rs 50,000 investment in 2014, the company clocked Rs 30 crore turnover in FY15. In FY19, the company raked in Rs 90 crore revenue.
Edited by Anju Narayanan