With a turnover of Rs 10 crore, this Chhattisgarh-based entrepreneur aims to create more jobs

Like most other college students, Manish Kumar Boudh wanted to get into a good job after completing his studies. Manish says, “When I was asked in my job interview what I wanted to become in the next five years, I said I see myself as the Managing Director (MD) of a company.”

After completing his graduation and securing a job, he went on to complete an MBA in marketing to fulfil his dream of becoming a Managing Director of a company.

After things went according to his plan, Manish successfully launched Nishant Pipes and Fittings in 2006 in Chhattisgarh. The company, which manufactures PVC pipes, had a turnover of Rs 1 crore by 2009, and had employed 12 people.

Manish at present owns three units - Nishant Pipes and Fittings Pvt Ltd, Nishant Udyog and Nishant Industries, with an annual turnover of Rs 9.5 crore and 52 employees working under him.

“I won’t stop here. My dream for the next five years is to provide 500 jobs,” Manish says.

Road to success

After completing his Bachelors of Engineering (BE) in Electronics, Manish started working for a company. He says: “I realised that from an entry level, becoming an MD would take my entire lifetime.”

Hence, Manish quit his job and went on to pursue an MBA in Marketing and then was hired as a mid-level manager in one of the paint firms. He would often look at the profiles of the senior management to gauge if he would ever reach that level. While working, he simultaneously started research for his business.

As Manish dealt with paints, he thought of a product that was common to buildings, and the idea of PVC pipes struck him. What further bolstered this business idea was the absence of a manufacturing unit for PVC pipes in Chhattisgarh.

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A view of the facility

With a meagre savings of Rs 3,000, Manish started his own business called 4P Sales Corporation in 2003, which involved trading PVC pipes. His next plan was to start manufacturing these in the near future.

“I had a well formulated plan. Once my clientele developed, I would immediately start manufacturing them,” he says.

As things went according to his plan, Manish moved to manufacturing and launched Nishant Pipes and Fittings.

Lessons learnt

But before launching this unit, Manish had many lessons to learn. “I had started looking for bank loans from 2005 itself. Around that time, I realised that banks grant loans only to those firms that deal in white money and comply with all governmental regulations. Till then, I had only dealt in black,” says Manish.

Once he could show a turnover of Rs 60 lakh in record, a bank granted him a term loan of Rs 45 lakh and cash credit of Rs 16 lakh.

In 2011, Manish launched another unit called Nishant Udyog. Here, he aimed to expand the production of core products as well as diversify into agricultural PVC fittings.

Manish was also recognised by the 'Startup India' in 2016, and was approached by many angel investors. Manish says, “Since my group of companies were running in profit, I did not opt for angel investors. Instead, I opted for bank funding and took a loan of Rs 3 crore for the project.”

Manish suffered a huge loss in his first year of manufacturing. The rate of raw materials had increased drastically. “The market rejected my products. I suffered a loss of around Rs 16 lakh. I doubted my decision to get into manufacturing.”

Manish realised that in manufacturing, one can decrease the production cost by increasing production capacity. So, he went on to increase his production by deploying more machines. By doing so, his unit reached a break-even and in the subsequent year, he started making profits.

Future plans

Recently, Manish’s firm found out that people are being hesitant to deploy PVC and CPVC pipes because if it leaks, it will have to be completely replaced. Not just that, the replacement is often associated with a bit of breaking down and construction work. Manish says his new product will address this problem.

Manish is now all set to launch his new venture called Aditi Mouldings this year.

‍(This story is published in partnership with the MSME Ministry to showcase success stories of SMEs)