Love conquers all: How these parents and children teamed up to build business success stories

Every challenge, hardship, or obstacle can be overcome by love or compassion. The same is true in the business world, where to win over the tough times, you need unending support and commitment. And, if it comes from your parents or children, nothing could beat it.

On the occasion of parent’s day, SMBStory has curated a list of successful businesses handled together by both parents and children. 

The Indian Ethnic Co

At 55 and after having spent 27 years discharging her duties towards her daughters and family, Hetal Desai felt her life needed a larger purpose. 

She had always been an ardent handloom lover with great design aesthetics and a natural eye for silhouettes and fabrics. Thus, her daughter Lekhinee Desai nudged her to turn her passion into a profession.

Although having no formal education in fashion, Hetal had an astute sense of design. In 2016, the mother-daughter duo visited a handloom exhibition for a shopping spree but instead came back with an exciting business idea and 50 metres of fabric with the ajrakh print. 

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They got the fabric stitched into kurtis in various sizes and designs from their neighbourhood tailor, while Lekhinee created a Facebook page and posted a few pictures of the completed outfits and distributed the link among her circle of friends, thus beginning the journey of The Indian Ethnic Co.

In just four years, the clothing brand touched nearly Rs 10 crore turnover and is comfortable dealing with 3,000 monthly orders. 

Read the full story here.

Vinati Organics

One of the world’s largest manufacturers of niche chemicals Isobutyl Benzene (IBB) and 2-Acrylamido 2 Methylpropane Sulfonic Acid (ATBS), Vinati Organics (VOL) was started in 1989 by Vinod Saraf.

But VOL may not have reached these heights if not for Vinod’s daughter Vinati. Till 2006, despite being a market leader in IBB and venturing into ATBS, the business was making just Rs 2 crore profit, and was unable to produce the right quality of ATBS.

Vinati teamed up with her father, starting from the ground up, and managed to bring a consultant on board, and figured out a way to cut costs and improve productivity by optimising batch timings. This resulted in increased capacity with minimal investment.

This enabled VOL to ramp up its production of ATBS to 25,000 tonnes, becoming the world’s biggest manufacturer of the chemical. With Vinod and Vinati at the helm, the chemical manufacturer went on to capture roughly 65 percent of the global market for the product.

Read the full story here.

Gourav Luminaries

When Prem Khanna left Kharkoda village, his parents gave him Rs 5,000 to help him pursue his dreams, and he found himself at the local factories in Delhi.

He worked out of a small room in the Shahdara district, and made chokes at night with his own hands and sold them at local markets during the day.

With his savings, Prem established ‘Gourav Luminaries’ in 1991 and began building his brand.

His sons Gaurav and Pankaj joined the business in 2010, and Gourav Luminaries — which started from a single room — grew to become an electricals brand with four manufacturing units for its Otto modular switches (its bestselling product), Yodha switchgear, Hilyt LED lights, Viktor ceiling fans, etc., in the Sahibabad Industrial Area.

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Gaurav, CEO at the firm, tells SMBStory,

“Over the years, the brand has grown into a Rs 52 crore revenue business with an 85-member strong workforce and 115 people employed as contractual labour.”

Read the full story here.

Amrutam

Ashok Gupta, along with his wife, Chandrakanta Gupta, set up a small manufacturing unit from his savings to make and sell Ayurvedic lifestyle and healthcare products in 2006. 

Having acquired the knowledge of Ayurveda and being in the industry for more than a decade, Ashok had built a good network and a proficiency in doing business. 

Unfortunately, his business didn’t kick off and suffered losses. But Ashok didn’t give up and kept working consistently for 10 long years. 

In 2016, the business suffered a huge financial setback and was on the verge of closure. But destiny had its own plans, and Ashok’s children Agnim Gupta and Stuti Gupta left their cushy jobs in Bengaluru and came to the rescue of their father’s business.

What restarted in August 2017 by getting one order a month has now grown to receive 4,000 orders per month with a turnover of Rs 2.78 crore. 

The company also claims to have witnessed a 250 percent jump in revenue in FY21. 

GR Infraprojects

In the 1960s, grain merchant Gumani Ram Agarwal (GR Agarwal) lived in the desert-like, arid, and semi-arid regions of Churu district in Rajasthan. With limited resources to feed his family, survival was hard.

GR Agarwal felt the government was not focused on constructing roads in such areas at the time. Not one to give up, he took up the task himself and started a business to build roads in the state in 1965.

Starting from scratch with an infrastructure project near Jaisalmer and his sons joining him to scale the business, his small partnership firm served as the foundation for GR Infraprojects — an integrated road engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) business — with Rs 6,028 crore turnover in FY20.

His son Vinod Kumar Agarwal, MD and promoter at the firm, says,

“Most of us (my brothers) did not receive proper education in the village, and one by one, we joined our father’s business. Over the years, our family business grew as the opportunities for road construction unfolded in the country.”

Read the full story here.