SMB top stories of the week

Keeping pace with trendy style in addition to giving comfort to clients is the main objective of entrepreneurs. This week, SMBStory has mapped the journey of companies that win the hearts of their customers.

India is the second largest shoe producer after China, accounting for 13% of global shoe production, according to a MSME report. The shoe industry also generates maximum employment opportunities, especially for the weaker sections, and therefore constitutes an important part of the Indian economy.

But just a few decades ago, the scenario was very different in India. People were more inclined to international brands and had more confidence in products made abroad.

Meanwhile, and a few years after India gained independence from the British Raj, Dharam Pal Gupta, Purshotam Das Gupta and Rajkumar Bansal teamed up to launch a national shoe business in 1955 with the aim of reducing dominance over imports and rely on “Make in India” shoes. They started a 500 square foot store in Karnal, Haryana, and called it Pal Boot House.

The founders changed the name of Pal Boot House to Liberty Shoes while keeping their vision aligned to free the Indians from foreign domination.

What started with the manufacture of four pairs per day in 1955, today Liberty Shoes manufactures 50,000 pairs per day and records an annual turnover of Rs 700 crore.

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The first thought that may come to mind when hearing the name of Churchill & Company is whether it is a British brand or if it has a connection to the former Prime Minister British, Winston Churchill?

But Churchill & Company is a brand that has its roots in India. Punjab-based Churchill & Company was founded in 2017 by two young entrepreneurs Abhishek Chopra (32) and Sagar Sarin (28). Although relatively new, it is ready to compete in the crowded market for men’s shoes in India, which has tastes like Zara and Woodland.

The idea behind the launch of the brand was to make elegant and comfortable shoes at affordable prices. Abhishek saw a gap in the market that forced him to launch a shoe brand that achieved a balance where the three aspects meet. He says,

“There are only a few options in the luxury men’s footwear sector. Some of the biggest brands are of phenomenal quality but do not do justice to the Indian market in terms of price. ”

This led to the conceptualization of the brand.

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Samshék

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When shopping, it is a big problem for women to have a perfectly sized outfit. Choosing each dress by hand and wondering if it would have a particular neck shape, sleeve type or length is always disheartening.

Seeing this huge gap, the brother-sister duo Samiksha Bajaj and Abhishek Bajaj founded Samshék in 2015, one of the first Indian fashion and technology companies based in New Delhi.

In interaction with SMBStory, Samiksha says,

“After I finished my course, I worked with London Fashion Week. What I realized is that the problem everywhere is the same. Women are always struggling to find the right size and the desired design. I heard about body scanners and personalization options in London and thought about discussing it with Abhishek if there was anything we could do. “

Thus, Samshék was born from a phone call from London to Washington while Samiskha and Abhishek aligned themselves with the concept of offering fashion stores that offer digital personalization of outfits on both platforms – retail and online.

Samshék says it is one of the first companies to effectively combine technology and fashion to solve the two major problems of the clothing industry – size and durability.

At Samshék, measurements are taken using a 3D body scanner which eliminates retail size standards and accepts a custom measurement system to provide a precise fit in each garment.

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Other SMBStories of the week:

For many of us, chaats are associated with nostalgia and pleasure. Whether it’s the old street corner where you get the most gol gappas, or the hole in the wall restaurant that makes the best paved bhaji, each city and region has its own famous food joints.

It was something Aakanksha Chaudhary would often miss – his love for spicy and tangy Indian food. After completing her doctorate in materials science from IISc in Bangalore, Aakanksha was ready to embark on research. However, not finding an appropriate job profile on the market forced her to change lanes. Upset by the turn of events and the desire to do something about herself, Aakanksha decided to look at something she liked – food.

She installed Mireya Foods, under the Chaat Street brand, in 2017 in Bengaluru. With earnings of 100 rupees the first day, the brand now records a turnover of 5 crores rupees. It currently has seven stores and a central kitchen in Bangalore and has an annual turnover of 5 crore rupees. The store’s EBITDA is set at 25%.

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Himanshu Agarwal stayed with his roommates in Gurugram and buying groceries always seemed a task. He quickly noticed a huge gap in the prices of vegetables available online and offline.

He saw several companies like Grofers and Bigbasket emerge in the B2C space. He realized that there were very few players in the B2B space, with the exception of Jumbotail, JumboGrocery and EZKirana. He decided to study the vegetable supply chain to understand the reason for the huge price difference on three different platforms.

In October 2016, this led to the launch of GreenDesk, a B2B grocery platform based in Jaipur. The local mandis were initially the suppliers of GreenDesk. As the team digged, it began sourcing vegetables directly from the farmers.

Today, the company has partnered with more than 50 distribution partners to supply grocery products. It has 60 customers in hospitals, cafes and restaurants and receives 1,000 orders per month.

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Shri Satya Narayana Dasa, Rishi Pal Chauhan and Partap Singh Chauhan, three brothers, spent their childhood in a natural environment.

Shri Satya Narayana Das, director of the Jiva Institute, the educational arm of the Jiva group, went to IIT-Delhi and landed a well-paying job in the United States. However, he saw that many people suffered from depression and were unable to fight the lifestyle issues.

This led him to give up the world and move to Vrindavan. Seeing his older brother adopt such a life, Partap Chauhan also wondered what his mission in life was. He decided to find answers in Ayurveda and took a course on the subject. The challenges to be met in such a niche were numerous. Chauhan says,

“No one liked Ayurveda at the time; not students or teachers. The general view was that people who had not been admitted to an allopathy course used to opt for Ayurveda courses. ”

But he decided to choose the road less traveled and build a career in Ayurveda.

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One thing that all Indians can relate to is their summer vacation while growing up, mostly plagued by frequent power outages, melted ice in the freezer and making makeshift fans from everything at a distance – newspapers, pieces of cardboard, and sometimes even handkerchiefs.

While diesel generators were available, the emissions from these generators were never desirable. The Indian government then announced the launch of the National Solar Mission in 2010, which ultimately marked innovation in the solar space.

Kushagra Nandan and Adarsh ​​Das saw it as an opportunity to take the leap of entrepreneurship.

A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, the duo returned from the United States and founded SunSource Energy in January 2010. SunSource is a provider of solar energy and storage solutions to commercial, industrial and institutional customers in seven countries. Beginning operations from Adarsh’s salon in Gurugram, SunSource subsequently moved its headquarters to Noida.

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