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How Wonderchef's Ravi Saxena Built India's Most Loved Kitchen Brand
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What does it take to build India's fastest-growing kitchen appliance brand from scratch - without burning millions in funding?
In this episode, Ravi Saxena, Founder of Wonderchef, reveals how he turned a ₹1 crore bootstrap into a ₹500 crore household name set for an IPO. From pioneering India's meal voucher ecosystem at Sodexo to creating the iconic VIP Strolley at age 23, Ravi's entrepreneurial journey spans three decades of market-making in post-liberalization India. After co-founding Wonderchef with celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor in 2009, he disrupted the cookware and appliances industry with breakthrough innovations like the NutriBlend blender and colored non-stick pans that became a cultural phenomenon.
He shared the journey in this candid conversation with host Akshay Datt. Unlike venture-backed D2C brands burning cash for growth, Wonderchef achieved profitability by obsessing over consumer pain points, building an 85,000-strong women entrepreneur network, and mastering omnichannel distribution across modern trade, general trade, e-commerce, and direct sales.
With 6.5 million Instagram followers and products in every third Indian kitchen, Ravi breaks down the precise strategies behind building brand love without brand budgets. From lobbying for meal voucher legislation in his twenties to cracking the kitchen automation market today, this is a masterclass in patient capital, innovation timing, and building category-defining businesses in India's consumer economy.
Key Highlights:
👉How Ravi invented the VIP Strolley name that became a generic trademark for wheeled luggage
👉The counterintuitive strategy that made Sodexo meal vouchers successful in India without tax benefits
👉Why Wonderchef's NutriBlend became the single largest-selling mixer SKU in India, accounting for 25% of sales
👉Building an 85,000-strong women entrepreneur network that operates on negative working capital
👉The "HTC framework" (Health, Taste, Convenience) that guides every product innovation
👉How Wonderchef reached ₹500 crore revenue burning less than $6 million, while competitors burn multiples more
👉Why the Indian MSME manufacturing model must evolve beyond the "Malik culture" to compete globally
#IndianStartups #ConsumerBrands #D2CIndia #KitchenAppliances #SanjeevKapoor #StartupIndia #EntrepreneurshipIndia #MakeInIndia #SodexoIndia #VIPLuggage #NutriBlend #StartupFunding #CapitalEfficiency #OmnichannelRetail #DirectSelling #WomenEntrepreneurs #IndianManufacturing #StartupIPO #FounderStories #IndiaConsumerMarket #BrandBuilding
Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel
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Transcript
Early Challenges and Frugality at Wondersheft
00:00:00
Speaker
There was a time building Wondersheft that my personal wealth had come down to 2 lakhs. And I was wondering that day that what is the choice I've made in my life. Success is never owned. It is rented through hard work. My office was in a garage for which I was paying 20,000 rupees per month.
00:00:16
Speaker
In our lifetime journey, we have burned less than 6 million dollars. Which is extremely efficient for a 500 crore top line. We are the fastest brand to go from 0 to 500 crore in our industry. Ravi Saxena pioneered D2C in India with Wonder Chef much before Mama Earth and Boat.
00:00:34
Speaker
This episode is a masterclass from the OG himself on frugal innovation and brand building. Literally every Indian household would have some Wonder Chef product. What do you mean by branding? There is this famous chef called Sanjeev Kapoor whom I have seen on television. Probably I had one thing that a lot of very smart people don't have.
00:00:59
Speaker
Ravi, welcome to the Founder Thesis podcast. You know, when they say household name, i think there is no better example of household name
Ravi Saxena's Career Beginnings
00:01:08
Speaker
than Wondershef. Literally every Indian household would have some Wondershef product. And I'm super excited to understand from you how you built Wondershef, what led you to it, and the journey of making Wondershef what it is today.
00:01:22
Speaker
ah Can you start with giving me some of your background? Like, where did you grow up? What was your career path like? Yeah, Akshay, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here with you.
00:01:33
Speaker
And thank you for choosing me to enable me to share my thoughts, my ideas, my experience and my journey with your listeners, with your subscribers.
00:01:44
Speaker
um It's always nice to talk about one's background, one's struggles and success. And I hope that many of you listening here are in my chair one day and would be doing the same in your lifetime.
00:01:59
Speaker
That is the most exciting thing you can do. So thank you for allowing me to be here. So I actually i grew up in Delhi, the classic Delhi studious boy, Delhi public school, Puram, Delhi engineering college.
00:02:13
Speaker
I went to Delhi engineering college to pursue electronics engineering. And so I did that. ah But over the course of engineering, I realized that I am more comfortable with things I can see and perceive rather than with electrons and holes which I cannot see.
00:02:33
Speaker
So l electronics engineering, frankly, never excited me so much. I also applied um to US for masters, ah taking my GRE, got admission everywhere that I applied, got scholarship.
Transforming Brands: Skybags and Sodexo
00:02:49
Speaker
And fortunately enough, I was saved from that misery because I got through all the IAMs and I decided to go to IAM Ahmedabad. And ah so I think I found my first break there.
00:03:04
Speaker
And I shudder to think that had I followed the sheep mentality and just gone to US and done MS, I probably might have been a bit more miserable in my life. yeah So okay I like marketing. As I said, I...
00:03:18
Speaker
like interacting with people about invisible ideas rather than invisible objects and you know create thought process around it.
00:03:29
Speaker
So I liked marketing and I was fortunate to get the job of a brand manager in Blooplast. Blooplast used to be a very iconic company in those days, ah marketeers of VIP luggage.
00:03:43
Speaker
Leo Metal Toys, which were famous for metal cars and Barbie dolls, office furniture systems, Moderna furniture, and a whole lot of other exciting new ideas.
00:03:55
Speaker
And I was given charge of brand management of Skybags, which is today very well known. At that time, it was hardly known. It was the soft luggage, new and upcoming brand, but it um it had stagnated at about 10 crore sales.
00:04:10
Speaker
I got a wonderful boss and their support system and I conceptualized many products there listening to just one entity which is the consumer and that became the theme of my life in my marketing career always.
00:04:27
Speaker
So I listened to the consumer, I went out to 25 branches, we used to have 32 branches in those days across India and i asked our dealers, which is the shops who kept VIP luggage and the customers who came there, that why don't they like sky bags?
00:04:49
Speaker
The answer was very simple. It hit us in the face. Customers said it's a wrong product because when we take it in the train, anybody can cut it with a blade. It can get wet. It can get dirty.
00:05:02
Speaker
And remember, this was 93. And in 1993, less than 1% India had ever traveled by plane. 99% India used to travel by train.
00:05:14
Speaker
So this was a wrong product for 99% of the people. And we were trying to just push it down the throat of our distribution network. So I came back and I said, well, it will not work this way.
00:05:26
Speaker
There was news of some fledgling airlines coming up. Jet Airways, East-West Airlines, Modiloft and Damania. And I went to all of them and I said, look, we will do something special for you.
00:05:40
Speaker
There used to be these printed ticket jackets which young people might not ever have seen in their life. But there used to be multiple forms in that ticket jacket. And we used to wonder, why do they need paper waste?
00:05:52
Speaker
But anyway, they used to be there. And it used to flap around. And I said, we will give you a ticket jacket. And behind that jacket will be the brand of Skybacks and a small advertisement.
00:06:05
Speaker
We'll give it to you for free, but we will not pay. And believe you me, that was a revolution because we were targeting exactly the customer that we needed with the luggage that they needed because it's lighter.
00:06:17
Speaker
Right. And then I said, let us see how the Western world travels. I had never been abroad till that time. And I said, let us see how the Western world travels.
00:06:30
Speaker
And of course, I couldn't afford an international flight to go and check that out. So I parked myself inside the international airport in Mumbai. And I said, let me see. And I was shocked to see, and I had never seen before, that people were coming with a very nice trolley back, right?
00:06:49
Speaker
A built-in trolley. yeah In India, nobody ever made that. It didn't exist. So I went to Heera Panna market, which is an imported goods market in much like the Palika Bazaar in Delhi or the Burma Bazaar in Chennai.
00:07:06
Speaker
And I managed to get a trolley, inbuilt trolley, well, a cabin bag. came in, split it apart, convinced my company to invest in that.
00:07:19
Speaker
And that became the iconic VIP Strolley, which was the first cabin bag of India. It became a generic name. People said, oh, I want the Strolleywala bag.
00:07:30
Speaker
And that. Oh, I actually thought Strolley is a generic name. You coined it. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. OK. Yeah. So so we did that name. And now it was fantastic.
00:07:43
Speaker
And meanwhile, i was getting headhunted for a very interesting opportunity. um So I told them that, look, I have to launch this back and then I would love to join you.
00:07:54
Speaker
Now, Paris had always been my dream because, ah look, again, I'm talking early 90s before liberalization started. ah We didn't have much interaction with foreigners or foreign companies. They were few and far between.
00:08:10
Speaker
But here this was a company which gave me an opportunity to come to Paris and stay there for a few years to understand their business and then take it back to India.
00:08:24
Speaker
And this company was Solixo. So in 1994, after working okay okay so in ninety ninety four after working with Glowplast for one year, I joined this company and I discovered this beautiful company, Sodexo, full of wonderful people. It was in a very humble business. It was the world's largest catering company.
00:08:46
Speaker
right Not Shadiwala Catering, but catering in offices, factories, hospitals, schools, colleges, etc. They would have a kitchen inside and Sodexo would run that kitchen.
00:09:01
Speaker
In India, it's not known as a catering company, right? I'll come to that. You will be shocked. I promise. Now,
00:09:12
Speaker
I had joined the other part of this business, which is the voucher business, meal voucher business, which is how you would know Sodexo in India, right? Yeah. yeah So I was hired by that voucher business with the idea that they will train me for three, four, five years and then send me back to study the Indian market.
00:09:31
Speaker
Now, I spent about three months there. Now, where does the concept of the meal voucher come? Let me explain. Now, as I said, Sodexo was the world's largest catering company. But where do you do catering? So let's say in India, there is the large factory of Hyundai.
00:09:48
Speaker
will be the canteen there. Sodexo will manage that. But what about the 100 sales offices of Hyundai? You can't have a kitchen there. So Sodexo can't help you there.
00:09:59
Speaker
So there's no parity. because tax-free meals are allowed, healthy meals are allowed or enabled or empowered in the factory, but not in the sales offices.
00:10:10
Speaker
So we created the concept of the meal voucher that wherever you have the factory will give you catering. Wherever you do not have the factory will give you a meal voucher, which you can use for food in the restaurants, which we tie up with pretty much like a credit card company.
00:10:24
Speaker
So that was the meal voucher business. Now I joined this business and After two months, I said, what is there more to learn? I mean, okay, I understand the business. I've explained to you in half a minute.
00:10:37
Speaker
This is it, right? and So let me go back and start this business in India. And ah my boss said, who was the global head of this business, he said, look, Ravi, India is a jungle.
00:10:50
Speaker
Forget India. We don't have any presence in Asia, in China, even in Australia, in Japan, we don't have a presence. We are a budding multinational. We are in about 22 countries. So why don't you enjoy here? have gotten the visa. You got a work permit.
00:11:05
Speaker
You enjoy here for next four five years. Learn in various countries and then go back. Now, when I look at Startup Founders today, you know, it reminds me of what I was there that time.
00:11:17
Speaker
And hopefully I still am. ah Because, you know, I said, no, I want go back because I want to do something with my career. You know, I have passed out of IIM Ahmedabad. I'm not going to chill for five years having wine and three hour meals at lunch and dinner. And I want to see if I can do something in India.
00:11:35
Speaker
And then he said, okay, then you go back at your own risk because it doesn't work out, we may not be able to bring you back. I said, that's okay. That's fine. So in the beginning of 95, I came back to India with almost no support system because I was the only person, first and only person of Sodexo in India.
00:11:56
Speaker
And the status remained the same for next two years. The hardest two years of my life. Because you have dedicated your life as a young MBA to a company which is not known.
00:12:09
Speaker
It's not sure whether the business will ever get launched. And to begin with, there was no supporting law. Because as I said, meal voucher has to be tax-free to bring in parity with the tax-free factory meals.
00:12:23
Speaker
And for that, we had to do something which was called lobbying. and with the government and now lobbying often is a dirty word but Sodexo was a squeaky clean company it would never pay any money for any lobbying so they said you just make representations to the government and here here I was as a 25 year old settled I went back to Delhi and ah I started visiting North Block, South Block anybody who would care to listen to me but it was just this unbridled enthusiasm
00:12:54
Speaker
Long story short, I managed to create so much enthusiasm, even within the government circles that after one year of these continuous meetings and presentations and making these relationships, we got a favorable law to support the meal voucher business to bring parity with the factory meals.
00:13:15
Speaker
And as per that law, we could issue 35 rupees worth of meal voucher every day, and that would be tax free. Now the story was not over as yet.
00:13:26
Speaker
I was celebrating that wow, okay, we have the law, we launched the business. The company said, no, no, no. First, we have to see whether with this law, we can make money in India or not. So please do a market research across India.
00:13:38
Speaker
And that was a terrible time because I was wondering, now what? But anyway, I went around, interviewed a whole lot of people, excited them about the idea. And nobody would understand ki why why do we even need that?
00:13:51
Speaker
Because this was the time when in India you could easily give pucks in cash. Travel allowance, medical allowance, this allowance, that allowance. They said, anyway, we can give tax-free pucks. No, why do we need to give this instrument which will cost us money?
00:14:03
Speaker
And where are the restaurants? If I were to go to restaurants, they would say, where are the coupons coming from? So it was really a chicken and egg situation. But finally, the company was nice enough to trust me. And they said, okay, launch the business. I came back to Bombay.
00:14:17
Speaker
And I launched Sudixo sometime in 97 beginning. And the rest is history. Over the next 10 odd years, I built five businesses of Sudixo in India, built wonderful teams. So we started with meal voucher. then How did you solve that problem? Like customers were saying there are other ways to give perks to employees through cash. Why use Sudixo? Very good question. I hope you would not ask that.
00:14:43
Speaker
So... So look, ah it was a classic chicken and egg situation, right? ah First of all, how to solve that problem? Secondly, how to solve the problem that there are no restaurants which are accepting coupons.
00:14:58
Speaker
When you go to restaurants, you know, even small ah ODP restaurants, We had to go and sit for hours and hours to convince them that can take it. And they didn't want to take because they didn't even take credit cards.
00:15:11
Speaker
And with a 35-qp coupon, you cannot go to a five-star hotel. So it was really a very tough problem to crack. And I think I ah did a few good things.
00:15:21
Speaker
First, I managed to build a small team, four five people of really highly enthusiastic people. Couple of them are still with me. You know, after 30 years, ah they're still with me in VP positions and all after three organizations that I've changed.
00:15:37
Speaker
And this unbrettled enthusiasm would infect the people in companies, in restaurants, and they would say, okay, we'll give it a try. However, since you ask, I'll tell you the real story. yeah Okay.
00:15:51
Speaker
So six months. We opened a small office in Nareman Point, which was the only place where you could have an office back then. There was no BKC, by the way, in those days. Bendra Kurla Complex didn't exist.
00:16:02
Speaker
And if you didn't have an office in South Bombay, you are not a credible company. I used to stay in Bendra. So one, one and a half hours of travel every day on one side. But we would be in office at nine in the morning and we would leave office at 12 at night.
00:16:18
Speaker
you know All the salespeople, including me, would come back. at about 8 o'clock. Then we will analyze every single discussion that we had had, how to position it better and so on.
00:16:29
Speaker
Six months, nobody bought the voucher. Nobody. Okay. And then one day we got a call on my landline. I remember I picked up and said, are you the guys who supply some coupons and all with which we can get food?
00:16:48
Speaker
I said, yes, yes. Oh, please come. Our Ceiling has fallen. said, what ceiling? Where? They said, there is this building in Poonam Chambers. There used to be these Poonam Chambers Worli.
00:17:01
Speaker
Our ceiling has fallen. And I said, hopefully nobody's heard. They said, no, it's the ceiling of the kitchen, the cafeteria that we had. So our cafeteria is no more functional. So we need the coupon.
00:17:13
Speaker
So that's how we got our first client.
Innovative Strategies in Business Growth
00:17:15
Speaker
50 people. So always there is some divine intervention. You know, when you where you start anything big. And I think this was our divine intervention. So first client, everyone was so motivated and ah we tied up with the response around that. And then step by step, step by step, it took a lot of patience. I mean, people often ask me, especially my classmates, here you were not necessarily the smartest guy in the class. So how come, you know, you built all these businesses?
00:17:44
Speaker
I said probably I had one thing that a lot of very smart people don't have, which is patience. You know, I was simply patient that I have to, once I have taken responsibility, I will deliver.
00:17:56
Speaker
So to last for those two years alone in the country when nobody was around and every day I would almost get depressive, where is my career going? And the more you dig in, the more you get stuck. Because now I have given two years, have given three years to this company, how can I get out? And the so I had patience and and we just kept digging.
00:18:15
Speaker
And slowly the meal voucher started spreading. But one another smart thing that we did was that I managed to position the meal voucher as an HR perquisite.
00:18:28
Speaker
Now this was a very smart move. Because we created this positioning by tying up with various HR forums. and So we realized that and we created various HR forums. I tied up with various HR practitioners. And we used to have these forums across all the metros of India.
00:18:48
Speaker
We didn't have much money. I was very frugal with the expenditure. I mean, of course, the company had a lot of money. It was a big multinational by then. But I was very frugal. The only thing we used to sponsor was the HR awards, a simple trophy, which we used to get for three, 400 rupees.
00:19:03
Speaker
We would sponsor maybe 10 trophies. But you know what? It was the enthusiasm because my team would be there like the host. There would be people who would be paying lakhs of rupees in sponsorships.
00:19:16
Speaker
We would be investing maybe 5,000 rupees in the trophies. But my team was there. The people who gave lakhs of rupees, they were nowhere to be seen. on their Only their logo would be seen. My team was there. when Let's say there is this program in, ah take an example, neru Center.
00:19:34
Speaker
okay My team would be there. They would put up a table. they would be doing the registration. and My HR partners were happy to have some team working for them because otherwise they would have to hire some, you know, temp workers.
00:19:49
Speaker
So we would do all that. We would ask everybody, up put someafaana you can of buhan in or you pay, but just kind of give me up right. And ah then at the end, there used to be a dinner typically.
00:20:02
Speaker
And my team would invite everybody. sir upnik hannaka appnikhannakay So we took complete ownership of the whole thing. That was the trick. and we would eat in the end. It was sacrilege if anyone of us would eat before. subarckage el thumb ilo betting it and We will you know the debrief and we will eat.
00:20:19
Speaker
So these simple hacks, you know, so and and and I think that's the story of my life. Sincerity, belief, patience and enthusiasm. A combination of all this day after day. day after day In fact, in the morning,
00:20:34
Speaker
i got a but I got a very nice forward saying that, you know, success is never owned. It is rented through hard work. And I said, wow, one day after Diwali, we are all at office.
00:20:47
Speaker
So see the commitment while lot of offices are on holiday. okay And that is what we do. We don't success take success for granted. We take it as rented. You have to work hard, earn your living every day.
00:21:00
Speaker
So that's where what we did. And with very frugal amount of investment, Sudixow became a buzzword because the HR managers, they wanted to have that trophy. And those who didn't, they got a hard one.
00:21:13
Speaker
But in their mind, Sudixow was somebody who was appreciating their work. So next time a salesman called, instead of getting the door shut in his face, they would get an open door.
00:21:23
Speaker
a welcome and the HR manager would be happy to listen to their story. And we managed to position that if you are giving Sodexo coupons for meal, that means you are taking care of your employees. You are a good HR manager.
00:21:39
Speaker
move And in the next 10 years or so, they were almost when I left the company, there were almost 20,000 companies using the meal coupon.
00:21:51
Speaker
And it became a buzzword. Were there other regulation-related factors, market forces also which helped in the adoption?
00:22:07
Speaker
Look, it will get a little bit complex. It's not so complex to understand, but it's funny. Again, let me share if you ask.
00:22:19
Speaker
ah After I left, Six months after that, the global HR head and global finance head of Subixo came to India and called me for a meeting.
00:22:31
Speaker
And we had a nice dinner and everything. And I could see that they wanted to ask me something. So I said, okay, really, what is it that you want to ask? said, Ravi, we have a funny question. We don't know whether you will understand or not.
00:22:43
Speaker
And we have asked everybody, of course, in the company. And all my teams, remember, they had been around with me for 9, 10 years by then, and they were all there. And they asked me, Ravi, why do people buy the meal coupon in India?
00:22:57
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that was my question too. yeah It can't just be the feel-good factor, right? I'll tell you. and you Of course, one, to the tune of 35 rupees, which was later increased to 50 rupees per day, it was tax-free.
00:23:13
Speaker
But Sodexo does not launch the meal voucher in any country under such a situation. It launches only if it is tax-free for the employee, but also tax-friendly for the company.
00:23:31
Speaker
Now, how does it become tax-friendly for the company? Right. so Okay. Now, the mean voucher business was popular in Western Europe and Latin America because these are social countries.
00:23:45
Speaker
It was not popular in Anglo-Dutch countries. It was Anglo-Dutch are not social countries that way. So what do I mean by that? The social protection that you have in France or Portugal or even Germany to some extent or Italy or Greece is far higher than in England or Netherlands or USA.
00:24:09
Speaker
So your kids can study free for life. If you retire, you are taken care medically, not in US, right? You need medical insurance. So that's the Anglo-Dutch. Now the social countries, where do they finance their scheme from?
00:24:24
Speaker
That's from that social component or tax charges which are levied on your salary. Amazing. You said you set up five businesses for Sudex. So one of course is meal voucher. What are the other four?
00:24:37
Speaker
So then, one of the reasons I gave someone a butalliska gift coupon for Akbar Ali. Before that, I never got gift voucher in life. So, probably Diwali, a printer or whatever gave me a envelope. Normally, we don't take But I kept it. I saw Akbar Ali's, 200 rupees hey sort of pickcker gift coupon.
00:24:59
Speaker
And Akbar Ali's, you know, there used to be this store in Ford. And there was one in Chembur and one in Santa Cruz. So, it was three stores. And I had asked, okay, 200 rupees for which one would go? had time not. I was busy. Who would go to 200 rupees for this store?
00:25:17
Speaker
And that coupon expired. It was a deadline for 2-4 months. But that triggered a thought in my mind. I said, if someone can see a coupon in three stores as a gifter, that I will give a recipient to a then I will give a choice. I said, what if I tie up with 5,000 outlets across India?
00:25:45
Speaker
Which you can... Because of Sodexo, you already have the reach. We have people who can tie up, right? Yeah. yeah yeah I had just a team of 15 people, not more. 15 people, one-five, who had tied up by now with about 20,000 restaurants.
00:26:01
Speaker
It was only two years. Wow. So we had opened eight classic branches, which are top-share, including Pune and Ahmedabad. And we had taken up with 15,000 restaurants in restaurant.
00:26:13
Speaker
And then I said to my team, that have to make a gift voucher. And it was all paper at that time. So they made a good attractive gift voucher. And we said, here we have to tie with 5,000 shops. That time we have to tie up with Shopper's Top. Today we have Shopper's Top partner.
00:26:28
Speaker
So take look. And there was no change. we had to tie up with one-on-one. Because this time I'm still speaking, 99. Modern revolution had still not come to India. Shopper's Top was the only megastore.
00:26:42
Speaker
Yeah. So we did 4-5,000 shops with tie-up. And we started telling our clients that this gift voucher is in this time. And of course everything was stacked up against the gift voucher because first of all in India always people want to gift something which is much value and less.
00:27:03
Speaker
so so yeah Yeah, perceived value. We call MRP and MOP that our blender is 4,000 rupees actually in 6,000 rupees on Amazon. but because get of the money, you will get to the price of $1700. But you get the actual money the price $500. the price of $500 is $500. the price of $500 will be $500. the price $500 be $500.
00:27:19
Speaker
$500 will be $500. So, the price $500 will $500. So, the price $500 will be $500. So, the price of $500 be $500. price $500 will be $500. price $500 be $500. So, the $500 $500. the price of $500 will be $500. So, the of $500 be $500. price $500 will be $500. $500 will $500. price $500 will $500. So, the price $500 $500. price $500 will $500. the price of
00:27:39
Speaker
So, the price $500 will be $500. So, the of $500 $500. price $500. So, the of $500 $500. So, the price of $500. So, the $500 the one benefit a value of choice for the customer or the is that some people are late on Diwali.
00:27:52
Speaker
egg then raga we would decide any work ishaka and i it last myja then don One they
00:28:05
Speaker
before, but we have not even got one client.
00:28:10
Speaker
And again, my team is looking at me, sir, kuch bhi aapke diwaang mein atate rahata hai, bol deyte ho, chilta do hai nahi kuch. And the I remember, again, a phone call came, this time on the mobile, ki, sir, ye aapke kuch aaya hua pamphlet, ki, gift voucher.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah, which company? So, LL. LL is the Israeli airline. Okay. So, Delhi was LL's office. And LL is LL. LL's office. They said that we had 72,000 rupees. 72 gift vouchers were 1,000 rupees.
00:28:45
Speaker
And I remember how crazily we shouted in the office. who By the time I left the company in 2006, we were selling about 200 crores of gift vouchers every year.
00:28:58
Speaker
Wow. My belief was that any thing imanda is says shit that's a arokahi so justma value ito beach chi as There's always this was the second business.
00:29:11
Speaker
puki deka key so likex sobot inspired work you the voucher or buti users who set there so i was put on the international development committee yeah isat nika the magga said cheltatira they put conquerka where i was sent i was lucky if we sent to more than 35-40 countries in Eastern Europe, in Northern Africa, in Latin America, that you study there.
00:29:33
Speaker
I remember, co we have a gift voucher in Colombia launched in Cheikh Cadou. They say it in French and Spanish. So, ah but three quickkaer studydi key par products launch here kindka in gaolline voucher launch here you know gaskeier which support other but I international development. But I got a good exposure. Then, after that, asked a question about India, maybe catering in India,
00:30:04
Speaker
So, know that I have small business in my voucher business. Because it's a sticky business. If you me a voucher, then you have to order. Right. So, I have never been 200-300 people in business.
00:30:16
Speaker
good So,
00:30:21
Speaker
then I have to say, your core business to catering.
00:30:26
Speaker
And I know that 15 years ago, I have 5 years old since I have been around for while. It's 1999. ninety nine kiba But I knew that for the last 15 years, teams from the catering business have been coming to India and they have been studying the Indian market. They have been giving fat money to PwC, Deloitte and all that. keyup Study, report, tell every two-three years. Acquisition target. But there was nothing happening. This time was where the food was given in 10-15 rupees with full choice. Blue-collared workers were in the factory, catering.
00:30:59
Speaker
Hmm. So I said that it will happen. There is no acquisition opportunities minia because it is a grey market type. You can organize. Who will you acquire? There are sticky contracts. There are proper agreements. name So I said let me start. So there was resistance for one year. No, no, no.
00:31:22
Speaker
Fortunately i got a boss.
00:31:26
Speaker
Something changed. And I got a boss who had earlier worked in catering business in Russia. Ivan Semenov. He was a Franco-Russian. After the Russian Revolution, all the Romanov extended family, they were running away from France. je agahi arthur Because the rulers used to be Francophones. They used to be French-speaking.
00:31:47
Speaker
Like Farsi, Rajaoongi language used to be Farsi. Including Russia, French was always a snooty language and a detailed language. So, he was one so he was one of the Seminov's house. He was not directly descendant of Romanov, but extended family by marriage.
00:32:04
Speaker
So, in yeni seva got out there they say i'm marrera jo kiohia so what that and he had built the catering business in Russia.
00:32:14
Speaker
I convinced him that you had to do catering business. He said, you are an engineer, you are catering. I am a manager. I will hire good chefs and I will do it. But he said, what are the challenges? Why our team not do it?
00:32:28
Speaker
so i said this low value this that but i said d one i have observed one thing and india people do not care about the kind of food their employees are eating and i've heard people say but in nietsche tila la and up sandwich felllling that for big you guess but
00:32:48
Speaker
when it comes to there furniture and facilities up not by saturday they're very careful about that
00:32:57
Speaker
So, will there be interesting observation, in Russia, had built a business called Facilities Management. And it's the first time ever I heard of that name, Integrated Facilities Management.
00:33:08
Speaker
I said, how do you tell this? I'll send you a consultant, a Swiss guy called Stephen Quantr. I will send you Stephen and you. So that Stephen opened my eyes to the Facilities Management business.
00:33:20
Speaker
Basically, you outsource everything to Sudikso, including food, housekeeping, maintenance, landscaping, security, taking care of your lockers, pantry services, everything.
00:33:33
Speaker
I said, well, this is good. This is good. you know So I started these two businesses. Of course, I hired experts of facilities management from couple of large companies which used to do this business like Jones Lang LaSalle, JLL or CBL LL.
00:33:51
Speaker
And I started the catering business taking chefs from five stars. Because very simple calculation told me that the variable expense in a catering business is almost 60% every day.
00:34:03
Speaker
So let me explain what that means. When we go to the restaurant, we are paying for the infrastructure, for the rental and for the food and people. When catering is free, it is infrastructure free because it a client. like at that Right. in the rental. ne ua Only labor and food used. So, food cost is used to be 60% and I realized this is why it's a tricky business because every day, every site profitable. If it's unprofitable, that means food is being used misused.
00:34:37
Speaker
So, I like people who think about this, understand this. So, while catering used to be full of people from unorganized sector, Like the are
00:35:17
Speaker
Why? Because the issue catering is that factory catering was very cheap and very dirty. Kickbacks, this, that. didn't do it. Blue-collar catering didn't start. Otherwise, will become just like that.
00:35:33
Speaker
This was the time when IT and BPO sector in India was growing. I said, let's target these companies.
00:35:41
Speaker
Now, you see, I'm just focusing on the tricky part of every business. And you are forcing me. yeah So, first of all, I'll tell you why I'm getting it. So, any IT or BPO company will always say, no, let's give food, let's give food.
00:35:57
Speaker
We'll say, let's catering us. No, no, no. Why didn't the kitchen happen? Compliances will come up a lot. They were all in rented premises.
00:36:09
Speaker
Okay. And they never wanted to, and and these were rented for long-term leases, 9 years, 18 years, 15 years. But they didn't want to do that hard work that you convince your landlord or invest in the kitchen. And what is the problem catered food? You are making a little caterer. You don't have consistency. You don't have hygiene.
00:36:32
Speaker
And they would push Sodexo that we are your global client. We are a $10 million dollars account in France. We are a $20 million account in US. So you organize catering for us. You set up your own central kitchen.
00:36:43
Speaker
I said no. I will not do that. Because I know the day I invest my own money in a central kitchen and I'm delivering food, you will kill me on costs. Because you'll make me compete with the guy who is cooking in a garage and bringing in food.
00:36:59
Speaker
Okay, so I'll not do that. You give me a kitchen, I will manage.
00:37:04
Speaker
have big clients. Catering doesn't come. So I said, I have to do something.
00:37:11
Speaker
so i said discuss the pual number bigger So I sent my teams to these caterers, who were there to eat in big companies. Those images are on my laptop today, which I'm talking about.
00:37:26
Speaker
of And if you see them, you'll puke. Because there were images of people
00:37:39
Speaker
there were images of people you know, kneading dough with their feet. And I took all these photographs. And I took appointments using my Sodexo US contacts from large companies like Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, Accenture, Citigroup.
00:38:03
Speaker
And I went from here on a 15-day tour across US, Chicago, Texas, Seattle, New York. I met all of them. The global facilities heads. And I said, do you have a problem that in India you get a bad belly and your employees also get it says, yeah, yeah, big problem, India and hygiene.
00:38:23
Speaker
I said, okay, now let me show you why. And I showed them these photographs. They were blown away. They said, but you are supposed to help us. I said, all I need is a kitchen. And that started the revolution of on-site kitchens in Indian corporate sector.
00:38:43
Speaker
Factories always had. Hospitals didn't have. Now imagine hospitals, are a hygiene masks, all of them are wearing hazmat suits. But food is made out it. There is no hygiene.
00:38:58
Speaker
So, it is not much talked about. And I think I was good at branding. So, when in Sudex, where was the company small today? The company 3 or 4 times.
00:39:12
Speaker
Naturally, India has grown. I have been born 19 years old. But very often people say what you said today. What did the Sudikso have closed? I haven't seen that business. Who was the Sudikso who had closed? That is branding.
00:39:27
Speaker
Because we used to keep up our bait. Because I believe branding is important and that's how I built Wondershef.
00:39:36
Speaker
Today, the voucher business is at least three times the size of what I left it. In catering business and facilities management, I had totally a team of about 25,000 employees when I left, which is the largest company.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yes. yeah Today, there are 125,000 employees on its roles in Sodexo in India. Wow.
00:40:00
Speaker
Every single good company, factory, hospital, school, international school, college, they have Sodexo catering. orho Ashoka University, Lillowab.
00:40:13
Speaker
Max Hospitals, Hinduja Hospital, any good hospital, Fortis, any good chain, any large factory. the seats were there. Me showing the photographs of these local caterers to American clients.
00:40:31
Speaker
Then, we started there. We built a very fine team of educated chefs rather than contracted workers. Very good financial control. And that became the basis. And then the last business I started was a smart cards business. Today, the entire Sudixu coupon is on his own smart cards or apps.
00:40:48
Speaker
So it so happened that I got an offer from Infosys. And Infosys in those days, I mean, you can imagine early two thousand s kahiri caritka pagaloia the emmoji java formula because was kind of an mafia.
00:41:05
Speaker
Right from the RMs, right up to Basapradhan and Faneesh Murthy, who became, who was the global sales and head, sales and marketing head. They were all IMA people.
00:41:16
Speaker
So I got an offer and I didn't take it up. Then again, they came back to me. So offer was to be in Paris and be the head of Europe. Again, my dream. I could not pull myself away from SUTEX. So my job is not done yet.
00:41:31
Speaker
and they said this guy is crazy so then next time they offered me ah head of faneesh murthy was leaving basa pradhan became the global head and he was head of western strip of us which contains both california and seattle so the the cream and i was also very excited but again i rejected because i was working on some very large programs with smart cards in India, basically TDPS, targeted PDS, public distribution system based on smart cards.
00:42:04
Speaker
jobja accounts so with anything log bus account need So I was working on that project with the central government. and do meica name native So I got a call from Narayan Murthy Ji's office.
00:42:15
Speaker
He said, I went to meet him. And he called Mohandas Pai Ji, who was his famous CFO.
00:42:26
Speaker
And they were meeting me asking and very interested in how this business know how much the business made. Catering is made. So him, is that a business? I said, yeah, it's a business. But not too many companies. It's very unique business.
00:42:43
Speaker
So Narayan Murthyji asked Mahmouda Spai, do we use these coupons? He said, no, we don't like coupons. you know But Ravi, if you can do cards, smart you know, what is a smart card? I said, I know.
00:42:55
Speaker
Then we will take So I developed smart card based solutions. Very interesting because I said, look, it's perfect for you because for the BPOs, now imagine in a BPO, in an IT company, you can take a longish break, right? Because you are at your own clock.
00:43:10
Speaker
But in a BPO, everybody has to eat in half an hour and go back because calls are coming, right? Yeah. so it's very time sensitive. But when you come, you're choosing different things from the buffet and you have to pay In those days, 30, 35 rupees, you can't pay through the credit card because there is fixed cost.
00:43:28
Speaker
If you pay through coupons or cash, then, you know, transaction takes time. So I developed a smart card based solution for these fast payments and became a huge hit Almost every large campus in India started using Sodexo smart card.
00:43:42
Speaker
One, you can load your coupon on that. So it becomes tax free. So in effect, you are eating food worth 1500 against 1000. against thousand big get And but secondly, it's fast transaction offline.
00:43:56
Speaker
So it became a hit. And so these were the five businesses, meal voucher, gift voucher, facilities management, food service, and smart cards. okay career Then I thought, yeah blo coffee yeah coach orer nache I should come. This was all B2B business, right?
00:44:14
Speaker
So I said, I want to experience the B2C side of the business. And one of the things, one of the offers that had been exciting me was through Miki Jaftyani, who was the iconic founder of Landmark Group.
00:44:28
Speaker
You know, Lifestyle Stores, Shoe Mart, Splash, Baby Shop. And it was a $2 billion dollars group out of Dubai. Lifestyle was already very well known in India. And Miki had contacted me.
00:44:41
Speaker
And met me three or four times in India and in Dubai. And his dream was that Landmark Group should become a large hospitality group, just like it is a large retail group. Because hospitality is also related to spaces, properties, right? And his dream was, he used to share with me that, look, I want to do 100 hotels, budget hotels, four stars, 100 coffee shops, 100 restaurants, 100 food courts, and 100 fun zones, fun city.
00:45:11
Speaker
I was excited and I asked him, do we have the funds? It was quite a lot of money. He says, yeah, this is my balance sheet and this is the cash I threw up. So I was excited.
00:45:22
Speaker
And finally I said, okay, this is something nice. And I joined Landmark Group and it was a fabulous three years there. I started Fund City in India, you know, these fund zones and malls still growing and very profitable.
00:45:38
Speaker
ah I started Gloria Jean's Coffees. I brought it from Australia and I started their franchise. We opened about 60 outlets. I started City Max Hotels, which you see in Dubai and Sharjah.
00:45:49
Speaker
But unfortunately, in India, they decided not to pursue them because the global financial crisis hit 2008-09. And look at
00:46:00
Speaker
We started pollination food courts and we that is the time um I was wondering that what restaurants to do. Because in 2006-7, India still only had two kinds of foods when we went outside for food. One was Indian and one was Indian Chinese.
00:46:20
Speaker
yeah A lot of people had tried out French and Spanish and Mexican and Italian they had failed.
00:46:28
Speaker
vegetarian Vegetarian Italian, literally used to do it. That is not true. So I said, look, there is this famous chef called Sanjeev Kapoor whom I have seen on television.
00:46:40
Speaker
And he doesn't seem to have restaurants. So why don't I contact him and let's build a chain of Indian restaurants. This was also the time when there was only one chain in India with three restaurants. And it was already a chain, copper chimney.
00:46:54
Speaker
Hmm. I said, we have the muscle and I'll build the talent to build a chain. So we partnered together and we created the Yellow Chili chain of restaurants. There are about 55 restaurants around the world now in that chain.
00:47:06
Speaker
It's very much active. So fantastic time gave me a flavor of the consumer side of the market, designs, interior design, architecture, life changing again for me. ah In 2009, the group decided to step back from hospitality because naturally the global financial crisis hit very hard and they were locked in and so many properties.
00:47:28
Speaker
Nobody knew what will happen. But they kept running the coffee business and the restaurant and the fun city business. So that time I sat back and I thought it over, you know, and I was turning 40.
Launching and Scaling Wonder Chef
00:47:45
Speaker
So I thought it's an now or never. I had started 10 businesses by now, five for Sotexo, five for Landmark Group, and all of them were working and all of them were, you know, progressing profitably.
00:47:59
Speaker
So I thought one thing I've learned is how to start a business and take it to scale profitably and step by step, not just burning cash.
00:48:11
Speaker
So I thought, what is my strength? On one side, I'm an engineer, I understand engineering how things work, how to design things. Also in Sodexo, we created a lot of solutions for large scale catering, right?
00:48:28
Speaker
Equipment for making rotis or dosas, you know, large scale. So I understood the equipment side of it also. Then I understood food.
00:48:39
Speaker
And that was back then a rare combination. Today, there are a lot of funded companies or top engineer MBAs are going for food. But at that time, a combination of engineering, talent and food was rare.
00:48:52
Speaker
So I said, I don't want to compete. I do not want to compete with Sudixo in catering. I don't want to compete in restaurants because they are my alma meters. So what can I do? So that leaves the domestic market.
00:49:05
Speaker
And again, as I said, I believe the consumer. So I went out and spoke to the customers that what is the pain point in the kitchen? Two things stood out. One was that, you know, we need to use a lot of oil in Indian cooking, but that is unhealthy. That consciousness had started coming 15 years ago.
00:49:27
Speaker
But chipakjata it sticks in the pan. So we need to use nonstick pan. But the problem with nonstick pants is within three to six months, the coating comes off. And ultimately, it's chemical. If it's coming off, it's somewhere getting mixed in the food and going inside this. So I said, okay, this is a major pain point.
00:49:44
Speaker
And second was that our mixers, Mixi was the highest penetrated appliance in India and homes. 40% of Indian homes had a Mixi by then.
00:49:56
Speaker
And the problem with Mixi was...
00:50:01
Speaker
Nobody could see inside because we had this classic steel jar mixi.
00:50:07
Speaker
We have to put our hand on the lid, otherwise it will fly off. yeah We need something more compact. you already the body mix c kevin So I said, let me attack these two problems.
00:50:21
Speaker
I went to Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and by this time we had worked together for three years and we had a great deal of mutual respect. I said, sir, this is my idea. He said, Ravi, I have tears in my eyes because when I write recipes and I personally use the best equipment and I know that for a lot of these recipes, good equipment will be needed. So yes, I am in.
00:50:44
Speaker
So we became co-founders of Undershef. We became partners.
00:50:52
Speaker
I went back to Italy and I said, let me see how they build their nonstick pans. I went to 5 or 6 factories. Tied up with one factory to build our pants.
00:51:06
Speaker
And I said, okay, in a market where people give only 6 months warranty, we will give 2 years warranty. If the coating comes off, it becomes shivered, wrinkled, free replacement.
00:51:19
Speaker
And in no year since then, we had to give even more than half a percent replacement. Obviously, people scratch it with a knife. set Then we will give it to you.
00:51:33
Speaker
Why? Because it's basic science. First, you have to use a good metal. Secondly, you have to clean the metal well. When we paint a wall, everyone knows we do sandpapering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? So that the surface is clean. It's a bit rough so that the paint sticks.
00:51:47
Speaker
But pants one other time, India doesn't do anything. But this was the international way. Then you have to use the right coating quality. And you have to bake it well at 425 degrees for 45 minutes continuously.
00:52:01
Speaker
In India, people were making pizza oven. They and they were looking at the paint. awesome okay So we started making pans with the right process earlier in Italy. Now we do everything in India.
00:52:16
Speaker
And we began to be known for our good quality non-stick pans. Almost every day somebody comes up to me and says, Sir, you've made our life. with idi yogi dobu tell me cana anal hu the food release properties were great then one day i was sitting actually it was what did you launch the what was the launch price because i mean if you're importing from italy it must have been a you're absolutely right absolutely right so it was three times the cost three times the price of any indian pen and still it's
00:52:51
Speaker
But of course not in very large numbers. But I'll come to that. Very good point. And how did we sell? Also I'll come because that is a part of a chef story.
00:53:03
Speaker
There was this opening of the Hermes, you know, the ties, Hermes ties. Hermes. And back and yeah bags no bikin back. So there was the first showroom they were opening in Balard Pier in Bombay.
00:53:19
Speaker
And they were Global Head had come and I was invited to that function. And he said, you know, India is a land of colors. So instead of our typical grays and greens, we are doing colored bags and colored scarves for India.
00:53:34
Speaker
And I said, my God, I have never realized that. okay i mean, we know India is a land of colors, but yeah, why not design a product around that? So I worked with the factory.
00:53:45
Speaker
to develop colored coating, to stabilize it. And we began to be known for our colored pants. i mean, if you ask anybody, Wonder Chef is known for its colors and vibrancy.
00:53:56
Speaker
And there were times people used to bring their laminates, kitchen laminates, to our shops saying, we should match the cookware. Okay. yeah ha okay So this was the cookware story. And for the blender, for the mixer, I innovated a product called the NutriBlend.
00:54:16
Speaker
which was a see-through. You mentioned polycarbonate in context of bags. I applied that knowledge to jars. That we need to use the strength. Even if you stand on that jar, it will not break.
00:54:30
Speaker
It will deform, but it will come back to the shape if you step off and it will screw back again. That is the property of called polycarbonate, what people show in Samsonite suitcases, right? So I utilized the same knowledge.
00:54:42
Speaker
Polycarbonate jars created a 500 Watt powerful motor. which fits inside a smaller blender. And it's crew kind. So you it never comes off.
00:54:53
Speaker
The lid doesn't fly off.
00:54:56
Speaker
And I launched this. And my team, as always... This is the Bulet. I think it's branded as Bulet or Nutribullet. Nutriblent. Nutriblent. Nutriblent. So it's the single largest selling SKU in India.
00:55:10
Speaker
For any mixing as a single S&P, the single largest. It accounts for almost 25% of our sales. One SKU. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And it has become an industry. It's become a category now.
00:55:24
Speaker
Every single brand is launching their version of NutriBlend. Some may call it Health Blender. Some call it NutriBlender instead of NutriBlend. First, we opposed also because it's a registered name, but we still remain far ahead. Hmm.
00:55:36
Speaker
or ahead So basically two simple consumer insights led to the formation of Undersheft. But you're right. How do you sell something which is so differentiated?
00:55:48
Speaker
Now, typically in India, people go to general trade, right? What is called GT. And because in India, everyone knows GT is the king when it comes to retailing.
00:56:00
Speaker
If you want to be a brand, you have to go there. But I always had practical ideas towards business. It's not like everything you're doing, have to it. So what can you differently? Not for the heck of doing it differently, but for making it successful, making it practical.
00:56:16
Speaker
So I said, okay, I will not go to GT. Because in GT, first of all, nobody wants to keep an expensive thing. They don't want to carry that inventory. First thing they ask is, sir, if you are advertising 100 crore, then we will keep it. I started the business with 1 crore.
00:56:33
Speaker
I didn't have 100 crores. Okay. So I said, okay, we will not go there. But I have Chef Sanjeev Kapoor with me.
00:56:43
Speaker
Every Indian woman looks up to him with trust and credibility. So first, let's create a women entrepreneur network.
00:56:53
Speaker
We will train them. And we want good people to sell good products to good homes. That was my motto.
00:57:02
Speaker
And we kept a tenet which we still respect in every single product that is our touchstone. HTC, Health Taste Convenience. Every product that we launch has to have the story of health.
00:57:15
Speaker
People ask for deep fat fryer but it is it is essentially unhealthy. So we have never launched deep fat fryer. Let others take the market share. Tasty is important because healthy alone will not become successful.
00:57:27
Speaker
Plus, as life is changing, people want more and more convenience. They're busy with WhatsApp, Facebook, OTT. They want more and more convenience. So right from the beginning, HTC. That's our touchstone.
00:57:38
Speaker
That has served us well.
00:57:43
Speaker
So we launched with this Women Entrepreneur Network.
00:57:47
Speaker
Today we have about 85,000 women who have signed up with us in this network, covering about 1,000 towns across India. People often ask me, where did you get this network? How did you build this network?
00:57:59
Speaker
Simple answer, one by one. No easy way. Just like we tied up with the restaurants one by one, there were no chains. Similarly, one by one network. And you know, my team size has never exceeded 12 people.
00:58:15
Speaker
for this business. Wow. Okay. For this just distribution channel. So this is one of your distribution channels, the woman on the... This would be like how Tupperware is sold? That's right.
00:58:26
Speaker
Okay. But it's a great channel because people are invited to evenings. They want a chef evening where people cook. They make tea together. They make... They have fun together.
00:58:41
Speaker
and Once they see a demo, they never forget the brand. And I think more than anything else, this has built the brand over the shelf. Today, this channel accounts for only 5% of our sales, but still the closest one to our hearts.
00:58:57
Speaker
Then we went to modern trade. but One question here on the women entrepreneurs. How do you align incentives? Do they get some fixed pay also? Or is it just purely commission on sales? Like,
00:59:11
Speaker
No, no, there's no fixed pay. You can't afford. Because... So there is a commission on sales. okay They buy from local distributors. And so because you need distributors so that the stock is available everywhere. But these are different distributors. These are not generated distributors.
00:59:27
Speaker
These distributors are also amongst these women only. Okay. They're distributors and they recruit the network under them. It's just the support of my team, but it's not just 12 people who were able to achieve this. It's my very iconic 250 distributors who were able to do this also along with us. And they've stayed with us right from the beginning.
00:59:47
Speaker
And so this sounds like quite an efficient channel because there is no working capital requirement here. The women are paying upfront. We collect the payment upfront in this. Amazing.
00:59:58
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. but and But normally every other channel you get paid after a delay, right? That's right. So you guessed it right. They pay in advance because we don't want to run after thousands of people get our payment. Right.
01:00:11
Speaker
yeah Having said that, to I wouldn't say it's zero working capital because we nevertheless need to keep the inventory. Right. Okay. go that on this channel nothing And probably you give them a better pricing because they're paying upfront. So...
01:00:27
Speaker
The margin um might be better for them. But the pricing for the customer, the attempt is to keep it the same, whether it's on Amazon or Blinket or general trade or modern trade or this. The only place where our products are cheaper are the army and police canteens because that is the nature of the shops.
01:00:44
Speaker
then You need to be a member of that network. So that's how we started. And then I went to Shopper Stop. And I'm forever grateful to them because Shopper's Stop has been the first chain of India and they have promoted a lot of local brands and entrepreneurs, you know, just like Wondershef in every category, whether it was garments, it was fabrics, it was homeware, you know, Shopper's Stop was the one who give opportunity and they were never so obsessed with the private label. They always wanted to give opportunities to brands.
01:01:19
Speaker
So we went to shopper's store and they said, okay, you have fantastic products. And remember, this was still 3x of the normal price. And it was only cookware and one blender. That's it.
01:01:31
Speaker
We'll give you space in this very famous Malad in orbit store. Okay, in home stock. But it will be a minimum guarantee of 80,000 rupees. Now to give you a perspective, at this time, my office was in a garage for which I was paying 20,000 rupees per month.
01:01:47
Speaker
And there were like 10 of us cramming up together there. And you didn't raise any funding. That's not even happening, VC funding. In 2010, I mean, before that, people came to dot-com, which had bursted in the bubble. And that the only people who were getting funding were still those who were promising the moon, that we're going to make now. Apps didn't come until then. But then tech companies. okay Maybe Flipkart also was 2009-10 there.
01:02:16
Speaker
Flipkart didn't come. Flipkart was entering with books. hu Right. like Because Amazon also started with books and even in India, Amazon started with books.
01:02:28
Speaker
So there was literally no distribution channel.
01:02:39
Speaker
But we never had to pay the minimum guarantee because we always sold more than what we had targeted. And that was amazing. So that gave me a lot of confidence that, you know, good quality will find its way. But naturally, the bubble is very thin at the top, right? Indian market is like a bell curve.
01:02:55
Speaker
It's not a pyramid. It just falls off the edge immediately. So, we did it for 3-4 years. Italy made products. South Korea made products because Korea is the Italy of Asia, right? They also make very fantastic products.
01:03:11
Speaker
Then that made
01:03:13
Speaker
And then in 2015, we got our first funding from CapVent. It was a Swiss fund, which had an office in India. And we got $5 million dollars from CapVent.
01:03:26
Speaker
By this time, i had a turnover of 50 crores in Vandashef. But again, as I said, we started with a capital of 1CR. And then we had a mentor, a Spanish family.
01:03:40
Speaker
And again, eternally grateful to them, Mr. Jose Busquets, who had supported us. And he gave me a million dollars to begin with. And this was in the third year of our existence. And we could scale up the business to about 50 CR, which is when the first PE fund came in.
01:03:57
Speaker
And then, of course, we professionalized the team. We hired the first marketing head. Till that time, I was marketing sales every year. And I had teams to work with.
01:04:09
Speaker
ah we hired our first CFO and so on and so forth. And the journey has been interesting. I mean, Wondershef took cut to the chase and give you a sense of the figures.
01:04:21
Speaker
ah This year we'll be doing 500 crores in net sales. And we are the fastest brand to go from zero to 500 crore in our industry. okay And other brands have taken 30, 40, 70 years to reach this stage. Those who have cracked 500 crore margin.
01:04:39
Speaker
ah we Within 12 years, we reached this stage. And as you said, household name. So I think the brand is bigger than the business we do, which is a good problem to have. And I think we need to be more more efficient in our probably sales processes and reach outs and so on, probably the product mix.
01:05:00
Speaker
But it's good to have the brand. And you know rather than having a 500-year-old business and no brand. so So we're working on that. So of the story of our success, hence, is first of all our omnichannel distribution strategy.
01:05:16
Speaker
When TV shopping came in, Home Shop 18 and Shop, you know, start Star Shopping or Shop CJ as they used to call them.
01:05:27
Speaker
we were We wrote that and that helped a great deal in brand building. It also got in sales and it was profitable for us. ah We were the first brand in our industry to have a website of our own.
01:05:41
Speaker
And much before COD was popular on Amazon, we started COD in partnership with a courier company, DTDC.
01:05:52
Speaker
So much so that when Amazon wanted to start this category, they started with books, they went to electronics and mobiles, and then they wanted to start this category I remember the ex-marketing head of Chroma, which was one of the ah partners of Modern Trade we had. He had become the head of Amazon. And he came to my office saying, Ravi, how do you deal with this business?
01:06:15
Speaker
How do you they know ship pots and pans and blenders and so on? And we became partners of ome Amazon. So today we have a very healthy mix of distribution channels. I would say we have four equally strong pillars, Modern Trade,
01:06:31
Speaker
General Trade, which is the small mom and pop multi-brand outlets. E-commerce and alternate channels like army canteens, police canteens, our own exclusive outlets and exports, corporate gifting and direct sales with women entrepreneurs.
01:06:47
Speaker
So each of these channels gives us 25%. And I would say that is really our uniqueness that we are standing very stable on four channels of distribution and we can push the buttons for growth in every channel.
01:07:01
Speaker
And there are times when some channel suffers like in the times of the pandemic. So we were able to support through women entrepreneurs and ah e-commerce. And even during pandemic, when everything was closed, we actually increased our sales in that year.
01:07:17
Speaker
And ah the second thing which has worked for us is innovation, always listening to the customers. I think we have the widest spread amongst any brand in our industry. We are not the biggest but the spread of choices, the solutions is the widest.
01:07:35
Speaker
We have many industry firsts to our credit like the first proper nonstick pans, the first the first cold pressed juicer of India, the first soup maker in India, the first ah automatic pressure cooker of India, the first automatic robotic cooker of India.
01:07:59
Speaker
As we speak, yesterday we have launched the first automatic chai maker anywhere in the world. So we keep innovating our innovation engine, the innovation pipeline is strong. And it's not just about the innovative product. product What I always say is that people overrate the innovation in product.
01:08:17
Speaker
Unless you have the ability to market that innovation, which requires two things, branding and distribution. Unless you have the ability to market this, it won't work.
01:08:29
Speaker
So a lot of innovators come to me and I say, fine, you innovate, I'll give you the muscle of marketing and distribution. and this name ne hum up nale Unfortunately, i have not seen one person succeed except Atombug.
01:08:45
Speaker
Atumbag also, the young founders, they came to me. My office used to be just in front of IIT where they were studying and we worked together and, you know, gave them some guidance and probably half a percent of the credit of their success goes to me. I suggested them that yeah they keep, they first of all, they make their own fans because they were trying to to orient and wish their BLDC motor.
01:09:08
Speaker
I said, forget about them, the legacy companies. put wings on the fence, sell your own fan. How to distribute? I said, Amazon has just started our business. Go to Amazon. That will give you the distribution network. But add a remote.
01:09:21
Speaker
Because this last appliance which does not have remote. Yeah. be So, ah but normally people come with a lot of innovation and I always say, please focus on your strength.
01:09:34
Speaker
Because not everyone can become Wunderchef or an Atomburg. Okay. Today, there is a lot of funding available. But at the same time, there's a lot of burn also because there are as many people willing to jump after an idea.
01:09:48
Speaker
If your strength is innovation, partner with put distributors and go for it. yeah That's the motto. How much total funds have you raised? So you said 5 million round in 2015. After that, also have you raised?
01:10:02
Speaker
ah Totally, we have raised within the company about 20 million. Which is extremely efficient for a 500 crore top line, just 20 million is like very capital efficient. part is The good part, Akshay, is that out of the 20 million, 15 million is safe and sound in my working capital, in my inventory.
01:10:23
Speaker
So actually, in our lifetime journey, we have burned less than $6 million. dollars Now that is... said Because today I see brands burning 6 million, not only in one year, but in one quarter.
01:10:35
Speaker
yeah folks I see companies which have become 500,000 crores in consumer brand and still losing 100 crores, 200 crores every year.
01:10:47
Speaker
there So as you mentioned that we didn't get funded in the beginning, it was a tough time. I had been a CEO from a young age, from the age of 25 when I joined Sodexo.
01:11:01
Speaker
I started business at 40. So 15 years of earning as a ceo CEO, of course, slightly better than a normal person.
01:11:10
Speaker
And there was a time building Wondersheft that my personal wealth had come down to 2 lakhs. Apart from the home that I own. And my wife had said that, okay, do your business.
01:11:22
Speaker
You have it in you, but just don't mortgage the home. okay But there was a personal guarantee I had to give to the banker. So in effect, my home was also, and I'm i'm i'm shivering while even saying this.
01:11:34
Speaker
And thankfully, the personal guarantee no more exists. ah But in a way, my home was also mortgage, which I never told my wife. And I hope she never watches your interview. um But the thing is that entrepreneurship is a lonely and a tough journey.
01:11:49
Speaker
and everyone has to go through highs and lows. The universe tests you. But I have seen that if you are fighting every single day, I think, and and you need, of course, basic intelligence and a good heart, teams stay with you, and you can make it.
01:12:08
Speaker
But yeah, I had come down to 2 lakhs, and I was wondering that day, that what is the choice I've made in my life? But yeah. ah In this business, you need largely funds for working capital because there's like a three-month payment cycle at least, at the very least, I guess.
01:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, you need to keep a lot of inventory. If I have 500 SKUs, so I have three months of inventory. The debtor cycle is also two months.
01:12:39
Speaker
And I would say about one one and a half months of payables. So the working capital, the networking capital is about three to four months. today. I think with more efficiency, everything it can go as you scale, your leverage becomes bigger.
01:12:53
Speaker
You can go down to about three months. what to second a mushkilo that So yeah, at this stage, we are profitable, cash positive. So we need funds for working capital, which we are generating and through our own EBITDA, our own cash flow.
01:13:06
Speaker
But I won't say that you only require for working capital because even in order to build the company, there is a time When you you don't have enough, you're not generating enough cash to pay for the salaries or your expenses. So yeah, there are losses to begin with. In any consumer brand, in the beginning, there would be some losses.
01:13:25
Speaker
Of course, one in a hundred or thousand brands also get built on their own. you know it's It's a really amazing right place, right time kind of stories. But today, times are different. You're getting funding.
01:13:39
Speaker
So invest in teams more than anything else. Invest in teams. And I say this to our suppliers, our contract manufacturers, because we have a few factories which are like our own, the only manufacturer for us, they're contracted out.
01:13:53
Speaker
But we also buy from a lot of other factories. And what I see is that there is the Malik, who may be shaving off one, two crores every year.
01:14:04
Speaker
That's why he's in business on a turnover of 15, 20 crores. But number two is a foreman His definition is a good solid build guy who can kick the backside of workers.
01:14:19
Speaker
yeah And he may be getting paid 30, 40,000, maybe a technical head who may be getting paid another 30, 40,000. And then you have workers to whom you don't even give proper shoes or a uniform.
01:14:31
Speaker
And you are, who are not even getting paid minimum wages because you are protected in MSME kind of an environment. So you're not troubled. And the the the point is that for generations, not decades or years, for generations, they've been running the factory like that.
01:14:50
Speaker
So, of course, they have some native knowledge of the subject, right? Some grandfather was a good engineer or you have your connects with the right suppliers of raw materials or the right distribution in the clients.
01:15:06
Speaker
But the point is, unless you invest in management, You cannot build a brand.
01:15:15
Speaker
And you cannot even build a world-class factory. Because workers, especially if you hire those kind and treat them like that, they will never upskill.
01:15:26
Speaker
And it's no surprise that we are not a patch on the quality and efficiency that China has. Because due to whatever... kind of socialism that is their capitalistic socialism there. At least the workers were taken care of in their basic needs.
01:15:44
Speaker
And even a half-organized factory. And there may be sweatshops and all that, but whatever factories I have gone to and I've been to more than 100 factories, they're organized. Workers are respected.
01:15:56
Speaker
Timings are respected. They have decent facilities. You don't see a foreman. And often in the beginning, I used to ask, where is the foreman? Like I was shouting at everybody. I said, what is that?
01:16:08
Speaker
I said, some guy who's making sure that the people are working. said, but they are sitting there working. yeah I said, if somebody is making a mistake or not working fast enough, or in that corner, you see that computer room. So we get to know that where is the line lacking?
01:16:25
Speaker
And for sure, the guy sitting there will go quietly murmur, oh, this problem, okay, you solve this. So that is the foremanship of China. In nuances, people don't realize. It's a lot of respect. It's education, basic literacy.
01:16:39
Speaker
And thanks to that, when the progress came, the Chinese were ready to take it. And of course, it was about discipline and force discipline and whole lot of other things. and Do Indian manufacturers...
01:16:52
Speaker
have the ability to compete with Chinese? Like what percentage of your product comes from China? What percentage comes from India? And is Indian manufacturing competitive with what you source from China in terms of pricing, quality? The biggest insight that look, ultimately it's the worker.
01:17:10
Speaker
Aluminium and steel and wiring will behave the same way as it behaves in China. Okay. Quality to same. Hmm. The worker quality is the management quality which makes the difference. Yeah.
01:17:22
Speaker
So until the time we are like this in our MSME sector, we cannot compete. Of course, a BMW made in India is the same as BMW made in Germany because those kind of brands have the ability to invest.
01:17:35
Speaker
But not every product, not every brand has the ability to invest. Dixon has the ability to to invest. So it is making world-class ACs, probably a shade lower than Galanz or Maidia. okay But at least it's manufacturing where it's less quality.
01:17:48
Speaker
But how many Dixons do we have in India? Not even five. But there are lakhs of MSMEs. And we cannot wish them away. They have to be there.
01:17:58
Speaker
Because not everybody can be employed by a large company. Similarly, China also has MSMEs only. There are few very large firms, which I named. But by large, these small companies. But quality, service, trust,
01:18:16
Speaker
truthfulness is in their DNA. And people may be surprised when I say this, because normally we say, oh, that's Chinese quality. That's China made. It's bad. It's a LED bulb in Diwali. Oh, that's Chinese quality. man yeah It is our traders who are going there and saying, cheapest, give me cheapest, give me cheapest. If you go and say that in Germany, they will throw you out. Say, we don't make cheapest.
01:18:39
Speaker
Go there in China. Okay, sir. How much do you want? I want 10 cents. They'll give you 10 cents. ah Okay. So it's not a problem with Chinese gold. It's basically what we buy. Yeah, yeah. True, true, true. Absolutely.
01:18:51
Speaker
And they are the same Chinese who are making even for German brands and American brands. yeah They make world class. Yeah. So whenever I dealt with China, I always checked the factory that do they have the certification for FDA, LFGV and ROHS.
Manufacturing and Consumer Insights
01:19:09
Speaker
do they Are they supplying to Italy, Germany, France, which are the world's highest standards when it comes to food equipment? Higher than US. But to answer your question, 99% of our products now are made in India.
01:19:25
Speaker
Okay, vi no do allowed to be imported from China. Otherwise, it's not allowed. Okay. Oh, it's not allowed. It's not allowed. Over the last five years, under the Made in India or Make in India initiative, the government has controlled imports of finished goods from anywhere in the world, especially China, for the BIS. It requires BIS certification and it is simply not given to Chinese companies.
01:19:51
Speaker
It's a non-tariff barrier, basically. It's non-tariff barrier. But it's a great thing. because Without such a barrier, nobody would buy from India. Nobody would develop. Today, all brands are forced to buy from the same contract manufacturers.
01:20:06
Speaker
So at least things are happening which I never thought three or four years ago would be possible in India. We didn't even use to make but screws or wire clips. So ecosystem is developing fast. Of course, Indian entrepreneurs are smart.
01:20:19
Speaker
But when it comes to ultimate quality, there's a long gap because of management, processes, literacy, our own culture. Have you considered starting your own factory?
01:20:33
Speaker
Is it worth it? We have, as I said, we have two factories. We have four factories which are like our own. I mean, we own complete machinery, tooling. It's just that some entrepreneur runs it because we keep it that way because there are issues of Delhi, local issues,
01:20:50
Speaker
It's not worth you spending your bandwidth on that. but they They are they like our own factories completely making 100% for us. So our entire cookware, our entire NutriBlend, our entire mixies and coffee machines, etc. are from exclusive factories. So worry and looking at chalanical instead of a manager, we have an entrepreneur who is on profit share business.
01:21:15
Speaker
So, 70% of the companies is this from there. 30% is from other factories, which are contractors. Okay. are
Branding and Marketing Tactics
01:21:22
Speaker
some insights you would have got over this decade and a half of running WandaShayef in terms of what is selling? Like Indian consumers, what do Indian consumers pay for?
01:21:32
Speaker
Or like, you know, some insights on buying behavior. Look, it depends on the category. Okay. So, our category is a very humble category. everybodyddy Practical category is need based category is.
01:21:47
Speaker
This time, we saw how many cosmetic brands have been made and have been made. They have been made. They have been made. 99% made. The big ones have been made. They have made a loss making. Because their model has been made.
01:21:59
Speaker
Easy funding has been made. But then they have been made. They have been made. They have been made. Why did they into cosmetics? They are not in our industry. How many cookware brands or appliance brands have you seen that have become big?
01:22:13
Speaker
There are two simple answers that I give you an insight. So as an entrepreneur, whoever is listening to you, you have to choose what kind of business do you want to do. It depends on what you want get an opportunity and what you want to do.
01:22:27
Speaker
So broadly saying, it one is impulse business, one is non-impulse business.
01:22:33
Speaker
Impulse business is that we have two suits in WK store today.
01:22:39
Speaker
good Now, he has 50 suits in own. When he wore his clothes? 2-4 years later. Shade, it's not fitting. I have lost weight. have gained weight. challenge children Let's leave. 10-10,000 rupees. He has He has a young upper middle class, a man has 10-12 pairs.
01:23:05
Speaker
Sneakers different, jogging are different, running are different, tennis are different. formal, party, and a upper middle class lady has 25-40 pairs.
01:23:16
Speaker
We have investing companies in shoes and shoes also, so we know the data points.
01:23:25
Speaker
So these are impulse purchases. You like to take it. If you haven't seen any them, you can keep it in your kitchen. yeah Right.
01:23:36
Speaker
Impulse high-null. Number one. Number two, our anokhi category is, which is the buyer, they are not the user. Because India, the branded appliances are available, that is the owner of the cook, maid, helper, comes.
01:24:01
Speaker
Yeah. code Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. so marri it take a smaller mea del andjaa mujaja table mar oneda chef yeah are top but he andly madeable within any yeah <unk>s got he pool use karo we grab yogaga the butravi log mito the sell each channelmeno ca say oh i only use when i cook yeah I said, how much is it? Today, our pen is in a period of three times. we're making India.
01:24:30
Speaker
It's just that it's better quality. We give a two years. So if a pen is 800-$800, then I'll give it to 900-$800. It's 100-$800. It's 10%-$800. Of course, then there are cheaper brands who want to play at the bottom. It's 200-$800. But it's 200-$800 for a customer who's walking out of a Mercedes or Hyundai Accord.
01:24:53
Speaker
No, it's a premium brand. But that's consumer behavior. What can you do? hu Right? And even if you can sell a new premium for a 500 crore, you know how to sell it. I don't understand. You said your brand is bigger than the revenue number.
01:25:12
Speaker
um What is the ah the reason for this gap? Like... Or rather, let me say, how did your brand get bigger than your revenue number? Like, what kind of marketing strategy?
01:25:27
Speaker
if though I think branding is in my DNA. <unk> You wear it on your heart, you wear it on your sleeve. okay It's not that I'm jingoistic and be in a wonderful party. But it's what you do every day, right?
01:25:39
Speaker
and And I'll revisit the example of Sudikso. Almost 20 years ago, when I met people, I said, Sudikso is a big deal, but what's it done? When it is 4 or 5x bigger, right?
01:25:50
Speaker
So that is branding. That is branding. Is branding advertising? like Like what do you mean by branding? Help me understand. Branding is that you have been able to create some space in the customer's mind in whatever best pragmatic, practical way you could.
01:26:07
Speaker
Right?
01:26:10
Speaker
So always have released my solutions. nigalesky So, Sudixo's name is where you will listen to me? I'm talking about HR Awards. You are not in
01:26:25
Speaker
But they were decision makers. hello A few lakhs were using the coupon. But understood that we have one brand space available our stickers in restaurant.
01:26:38
Speaker
Ah, yes, yes, yes. Now that you say it, I'm immediately able to connect. ha Okay, that's why I know Sodex, because there were stickers of restaurants.
01:26:49
Speaker
Typically, the sticker outside of restaurants was so much size. Credit cards, MX, diners, Visa Master, lost our list. Who knows?
01:27:05
Speaker
Let's double-size it. yeah Okay, he accepted restaurant. So, if you do A4 size. And there was a time when we were putting A3 size so big posters.
01:27:18
Speaker
So, they accepted the year. That was branding. Now, if I don't tell you, today you go to Sudixos and ask, how is the branding? week No one can tell in whole Hindustan.
01:27:29
Speaker
yeah Yeah, true, true, true. true yeah yes So, I don't know that I read Harvard or IMA or I just read it. It's just that you feel about your business and you see what works best.
01:27:42
Speaker
ah se under chef me Every single day, you think you have to be coherent. So, how did branding? through various things, but you should be conscious of that. One is, said, everyone has a build edge product in their own products. Everyone has a product, a stamp on it, prestige, bajaji prestige, prestige, and neela. We make a product, right?
01:28:07
Speaker
What is the cost? It's just a way to work harder. So we have our lifestyle images with good people. You have a team behind. The rain is in the kitchen. You have a premiumness. And these are all subliminal messages. Right.
01:28:23
Speaker
So we have a good idea. Now we have seen that many brands have started. So these are not sustainable advantages. Which is why you have to work hard.
01:28:34
Speaker
When digital AIR,
01:28:37
Speaker
Today, I would encourage you to check our digital media assets versus other brands in our category. On our Instagram, 6,500,000 followers are 6,500,000, which rivals cosmetic companies, lifestyle companies. yeah yeah The largest brand of our industry has less than 50,000. We
01:28:57
Speaker
we have 11.5 lakh Facebook followers, largest brand in the industry, which is four times bigger than us today, has less than 1 lakh. So we have 10x.
01:29:09
Speaker
Okay. We create content. We have invested in that. So I have understood where all branding is important.
01:29:19
Speaker
we give a lot of focus on demonstrations, not only through this Women Entrepreneur Network, wherever our very limited number of EBOs are there, outlets are there, is that everybody in our organization works harder.
01:29:35
Speaker
Everybody in Sotexo works harder than the competition. That's the DNA. Some smart ideas, 99% hard work. So, in our EBOs, now, there are 18 people. They say, bro, you do this, you go to the house and do it.
01:29:50
Speaker
So, 5 km catchment, they will also do a demo. Maybe a 1,000,000 rupees machine or coffee machine, maybe a 2,000 rupees machine. They will do that.
01:30:01
Speaker
Whether we have our promoters in modern trade, we have made a demonstrator.
01:30:08
Speaker
So, everything you try to do smarter, slightly better than others. Today we have 500 SKUs, but over the lifetime, 1000 SKUs are also made and made their life, they are done, they are done, they are done, they are done, they are done, they are done, so in our lifetime, I think we have done about 2000 SKUs, on every single one, every single packaging, I have seen the packaging, I have corrected the grammar, because grammar is very important, in a lot of packaging, me update
01:30:43
Speaker
gua ho thing ha ha light kind of a kohibi product andreato me dell mekanagaharakkiic is a chihogi chi product development inbi I can conceptualize key product market fittikakasor customer it escapebaric ya suna chatta he so na chatta yeah yeah but i it weekly they have na onop but that It's not good. It's not good. It's not good.
01:31:03
Speaker
It's not good. It's not good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. clean in automatic typebooking the war meeting you packaging which is my advertisement, what should say? I have defined on every single one of those 2000 products.
01:31:17
Speaker
For me, all it takes is stepping out. Graphic designers sit on their screen. Okay, let's do this. It's very angry, it's very sad. It's unique. You need to write U-N-I-K.
01:31:31
Speaker
You know, but take that. And keep your level higher to still think better. Right? And so I think it's a common... And of course, I have great teams today. There's a great CMO, sales heads, everything.
01:31:46
Speaker
But you have to continue... think that the passion of the promoter losing the night's sleep... could You reward. Amazing.
01:32:07
Speaker
amazing ah I think the biggest brand in your industry is Prestige, possibly, maybe 1,500-1,600 crore kind of sales. 2,500 crores. Okay. So what's what's your path to reach there? I think you probably have more SKUs than Prestige, right? I mean, and at the number of SKUs.
01:32:27
Speaker
ah No, we don't have more SKUs. I'll tell you. First of all, Prestige, old are you? What do you think of Prestige? decades, four, five, six, maybe, I don't know. 100 year old. Wow.
01:32:38
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. 100 year old. And they were the first pressure cooker company and then Hawkins, right? Prestige. joe bbiaka repair pestiica kaakka in car yeah half Right. you that. Yeah.
01:32:53
Speaker
in the good old days yeah topic duer be dalugaus sub hindustan dela right yeah butja also is because of that yeah So to catch up with
01:33:12
Speaker
so to catch up with presiggeious so selfur near home effectively the spar as salru there miracle yes someone a shockki i don a but giant there is a way ah men aummbbuka namlinni key liberty liio just said am okay example li thumb if you see the kind of funding they have raised I think 50 million or more, maybe.
01:33:34
Speaker
No, no, no, much more. Yeah. Much more. Okay. I can tell you. But, and the way they are burnt, but right place, right time hu up but there will go thf funding willlibi time.
01:33:48
Speaker
But right place, right time, right model and right people.
01:33:55
Speaker
So, but what they burnt is probably,
01:34:02
Speaker
My ear tells me more than 10x of WandaChef. right So, the point is that that is one way. If you do that, it can be. But the obsession is not to be bigger than prestige.
01:34:14
Speaker
The obsession is to be India's most loved kitchen brand. And I think we are quite there. We are quite there. Because
Innovative Kitchen Appliances
01:34:22
Speaker
whenever I speak to any customer, kabi play mewiil yeah I have also invested in WandaChef. more time,
01:34:29
Speaker
muskanajeti and listen to the words I have invested in Wanda Shef. My heart is like, what a thousand or two thousand dollars is invested in a investment. But they think they have invested in premium brand.
01:34:40
Speaker
And I think that's a great thing. Because you have mass, because it's mass of 500 crore, it's a mass of a brand. It's not only a premium, a it's premium image. It's quality, through dedication, through service, through design, through everything.
01:34:58
Speaker
So I'm very careful not to do cheaper things. That brand is bad. That also prevents faster growth. Now coming to number of SKUs. I said that our variety is the most.
01:35:11
Speaker
But if I have a prestige, if I have not done it, then I have a variety from it. But in pressure cooker, it's probably 200 SKUs. Okay. My pressure cooker is 25. Got it. SKUs are more than going to be. Variety solutions are my best.
01:35:26
Speaker
I have two coffee I have 20 coffee machines. Varieties. But some of them will more And there's no competition. ksques other I think our aim is Wondershef has been the fastest growing brand year on year, quarter on quarter for the last 17 quarters.
01:35:45
Speaker
In this category. Okay. Amongst all the listed players. Because listed players are relevant to their data. faat So we are the fastest growing brand. 15-20% we are growing year on You are in multiple categories. now It's not just home appliances but also cookware. You would be in two categories.
01:36:12
Speaker
We are in this which help you cook. We are not outside the kitchen.
01:36:27
Speaker
chimney. ah The only thing we don't do is dishwasher. And maybe refrigerator. and Refrigerator I consider is outside the kitchen. Sometimes we keep in the living room. But we don't do refrigerator and we do dishwasher.
01:36:43
Speaker
But the rest of us everything and do everything first. The automation products that you launched, like the chai maker and the chef, are these niche products or do you see them having big market share or like big potential? The first thing is that if you can do any innovation, by definition, niche will be. Unless you have found the next ChatGPT or WhatsApp or Facebook.
01:37:11
Speaker
Yeah, right. and as you understood that our DNA is not to burn cash. Now, we have all the chai maker, we have all the chai maker, let's take a 100 crore funding, now we will get chai maker, and the chai maker will get 50 crore funding. Yes, because time can show you, you have all the chai maker in our house. But the single product doesn't last, they also come.
01:37:38
Speaker
So, we will add it beiing it tcamo spell longwe igdocarola gangga pa askco long love cu damoga organically, but test it, so the whole category is 10-20 crore of the modes.
01:37:53
Speaker
two years to areka in a memory da sebiskarodoki mos spati h Because the day it's 50 crores, 10 and 50 companies will be given to them. um That's why I don't grow.
01:38:04
Speaker
Obviously, I want to take it to 50 crores. But some categories are 10 or 20 crores. And yet, I'm happy to stick there because that is wondership. How do you make soup in 20 minutes? It takes about half an Cut the soup it's full of fiber inside but tastes smooth.
01:38:22
Speaker
and Cold pressed juice is the best juice possible. that you can have for raw vegetables and fruits. It became automatic pressure cooker. became automatic robotic cooker.
01:38:37
Speaker
And nothing like the right time for any product. Problem is, if you wait for the right time, you are not an innovator. oh You'll be too late if you wait for the right time. And if you are before time, naturally it will be a niche product.
01:38:50
Speaker
Let me give you an example that you will resonate with. We launched air fryer seven years ago ago pretty much the same time as Philips in India.
01:39:01
Speaker
People used to say, what you want do airfare? We don't say anything. We don't say without oil cooking or frying. already The label used to use it for Macan fries, which are already filled with oil.
01:39:12
Speaker
Right.
01:39:23
Speaker
few other brands. The market in the last three years, the air fryer was a crazy thing. People are going crazy. Funny thing, they are still using for the same things.
01:39:36
Speaker
since of But this is what I call the tipping point. In a society, there are early innovators who are a graph. Suddenly, the J curve has started.
01:39:47
Speaker
This Diwali, everybody, and last Diwali, everybody ran out of air fryers. They couldn't have enough. It's the number one gift today. one aircraft to busa thegahan But it's the number one gift today.
01:40:01
Speaker
how How big is the air fryer category for you?
01:40:05
Speaker
I will not reveal full numbers here, but it's okay. And I think we also had like many other brands are supply constraints and all. But I think everybody is making money on airfares till the time the party lasts.
01:40:18
Speaker
Probably it will last for three, four years. Who knows? But it's category in Indian household. Like it's mixed, it's been made. I think it's a category here to stay. And then you asked if you were tea maker or a kitchen robot,
01:40:36
Speaker
Frankly, I think in next four to five years, one of these products will become the air fryer.
01:40:43
Speaker
Because the chef magic that our kitchen robot, if you don't eat anything, you can also make it.
01:40:52
Speaker
you don't have to sit and do this, just add things to recipe, just sit and sit and sit on the been 10 minutes, it's been done, now you put it on the weighing scale. So you can eat Sanjeev Kapoorji's food, even if you have never entered the channel before. Right? What kind of thing rotates on its own? Or like how does it work?
01:41:14
Speaker
It is like a big mixer jar, which has a heater also. So chop bhi karta, grind bhi karta hai, stir bhi karta hai, knead bhi karta hai. Wow. the upka Self wash bhi karta hai, self clean bhi karta hai. Ooper steamer attachment up steeping bhi karta hai.
01:41:30
Speaker
So pretty much everything except be baking ya rooti bada na, oo kar lieta hai. Baking ke liye bhi perfect dough bana deta hai, kyunki weighing scale hai, fermentation proper. So speed control, temperature control,
01:41:43
Speaker
heating, power control, and timer. There are 4 things. That's how we have designed it. We have made 500 recipes and added. It's all 10 products.
01:41:56
Speaker
But it's 10-15 crores. What's the price of one unit? 30,000. thirty thousand Okay. not, clearly not mass market. But is it guess nots currently clearly not mass market liin It's not much premium that it's only 10 crore product. button um how People spend 30,000 on a fridge, essential today.
01:42:25
Speaker
People spend 30,000 on a mini Indian holiday. Forget foreign. Foreign is a million. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mini Indian holiday, two days you go a hotel, which is a family with one hour. And eat food. 30,000 is nothing today.
01:42:37
Speaker
thirty thousand is nothing today
01:42:41
Speaker
But it's different category. said, you will never question it again. If you have guarantee, you will never question it again. if you have a hill to jake madam juha venkaalreta to guarantee you replacement. I don't need service.
01:43:06
Speaker
okay So that's the category we are in. It's a tough category. It's a tough category. Be very vocal if something is wrong on social media. We don't want to use the juice know the product. Blender for 5 years. We have a plastic blender for 5 or 6 years. I don't want to use the component.
01:43:25
Speaker
I want to use the new product. upgrade okay name g will go the vche i'm got every na product by fifty of li look And what do you do? No, I just need it. I'm taking you to consumer court otherwise. You have to... And what is the Chai Maker price at?
01:43:40
Speaker
Chai Maker is 4999. Okay. okay So it can be... it's ah It's a fantastic device. Let me show you if you want. I'll show you what we have done in this.
01:43:53
Speaker
That is my real innovation that I'm proud of.
01:43:58
Speaker
So how do we make Chai? We first... Pani, gram kertetay usma pati ڈaal djetay, chini ڈaal djetay we let it brew. Right? Hmm. And then when it brew, chai is khali, we add it to the milk and give it one-two balla.
01:44:14
Speaker
Right? That is the standard way of making tea. English chai pini hai, you can brew it in a cup and then you can drop a drop of milk. al But, Zahatar Hindustan, by the way, we conducted the research, 85% people in India have masala chai.
01:44:30
Speaker
ah the dingy i myself ha ge So, which was delete correct actually my wife made an observation India tea, you will become the same tea. You will become the same tea.
01:44:43
Speaker
You will become the same tea. You will become the same tea. will become the same tea. true through true
01:44:51
Speaker
so problem is kijava chai sha have to you up the soon jaik lamanjata the upcom ma i now he say upki i near and then put blood on it, and then you can't heal it because you have there and you can't heal it. And I guarantee that you have to make a 7-part of chai and then you will get up get up and up.
01:45:13
Speaker
The other problem comes in chai is that you are not controlling the timing, you are not controlling the temperature.
01:45:21
Speaker
e have same ingredients we da same chmas sinnakada okay but what happens is that you're not controlling the timing you're not controlling the temperature It will be consistent. We have cracked it simple device.
01:45:33
Speaker
This is the device. Okay. There is an induction heater in the base. Induction heater. There is no coupler. But there is a trother inside which rotates. And the real innovation is this milk container on the top.
01:45:48
Speaker
Okay. So you put water, chai, masala, everything here. Switch on the button. Okay. and you put some milk on the top.
01:45:59
Speaker
When the tea is brewed, consistent, it reaches a certain temperature, the milk gets released and then it gives two, three boils to the milk, but it stops just short of boiling over.
01:46:10
Speaker
oh Under PCBA, controlling, control, curly, right? So every single time you get consistency, never boils over.
01:46:23
Speaker
And you put everything. Like what I do is, I put everything. It's on my desk. Every day I have this tea. I serve five, six other people. whomsoever to partake I put everything. I press the button. I go somewhere or I'm working.
01:46:37
Speaker
Ten minutes, I come back. Tea is ready. Wow. Beautiful. But whatever I'm able to do, if I do 10,000,000 people, they will buy 10,000,000. that'sla lo mu garoon that'sla no kringling But that is marketing.
01:46:50
Speaker
It happens
Leadership and Company Culture
01:46:51
Speaker
slowly. awesome Yeah, fascinating. ah I want to end a bit with understanding about people. You said the most important thing is people.
01:47:03
Speaker
um do you have some formulas on how to identify right people, how to empower people, how to make people work 12 hours? Like you said that, you know, people would come into office at 9 o'clock and they would stay till 12 o'clock in the Sodexo days and So how do you do that? Like, you know, what have you learned about hiring, retaining, managing people?
01:47:27
Speaker
So first of all, please do not be mistaken. The good old days of Sodexo are no more there. ha True, true, true. Yeah, yeah. Work-life balance. The first time we were working-life balance, we didn't exist like Sodexo, so we couldn't do it. Yeah.
01:47:41
Speaker
yeah Interesting thing is that thankfully by God's grace, I've been able to create winning teams in scenarios. yeah don like had i no which would winca whatno but who so play but in sp begin interesting thing is that thankfully by godsrace i've been able to create winning teams and all areas um 12 hours of my kind of people. And I think these are the shining lights, beacons of the organization. It's 7 hours work. First thing is my formula is value loyalty above all else.
01:48:28
Speaker
One to one bright shining stars will go. Loyal people are loyal people. okay Keep them together. Because the organization on them. But you also need bright stars.
01:48:39
Speaker
like So
01:48:46
Speaker
looking back 30 years, 32 years of building brands, building companies, building businesses, I think I have seen that people who work with me get infected.
01:49:04
Speaker
with my passion, with my commitment, with my value system. And that has lasted throughout any business that I've built.
01:49:16
Speaker
And I think that is probably the most important aspect of an entrepreneur. That energy that you bring together. And you hope that some of them carry forward that infection.
01:49:30
Speaker
That's number one. Second thing is,
01:49:36
Speaker
clear vision. Now, vision can't always be Steve Jobs, I want to make a dent in the world. You know, we have a very simple vision that we want people to be able to cook healthy, tasty food conveniently.
01:49:56
Speaker
And that spirit of progress always needs be the way. And
01:50:03
Speaker
that path should be done. Nothing worse than a leader who doesn't know where he is going.
01:50:11
Speaker
And that is my main job.
01:50:14
Speaker
So when I was 6 months old, every day we would have this enthusiastic meeting. it's like that 6 months later, the world went down and changed. It was challenge that was 4-5 years ago. This is the of the leader that he always has become enthusiasm.
01:50:32
Speaker
but that's the job of the leader that will enthusiasm hamishha banakrana And I'm not a guy who is Jingo Stake who will be, yeah a man, we'll do it. I'll tell you in front of me. I've never heard of it.
01:50:46
Speaker
But basically thinking hard. This is how it works. It's been a curve out of this company. It's been a medical allowance for Sudixu Deli. We can change this direction. These are 57 people who are selling Chef Magic Rose on our website.
01:51:06
Speaker
How can they buy 10? Let's analyze that. Do the root cause analysis. Do the opportunity analysis. Let's analyze what is going wrong. Let's see what is going right. So basically, that is showing path according to me.
01:51:19
Speaker
That's showing direction. How do we think?
01:51:24
Speaker
Number two. Number three, am very mathematically driven. It's very important for any leader, any entrepreneur to be mathematically oriented. tay however about ten i hope People can't make a fool out of you. you know Because ultimately everything should be measured. What gets measured gets done.
01:51:42
Speaker
Another thing is trust. You must deliver on what you are saying. Salespeople may or may not deliver because as a promoter, as CEO, forning us the business but as a promoter as a ceo
01:52:01
Speaker
If you have committed something, you have to do something. If you have said that salary is going to go, then you will go. If you have get personal bank from the bank, there will be a time partnership. It will be an entrepreneurship. If you have said that we will launch this product,
01:52:20
Speaker
So people trust you. And that's what gives rise to a loyal band of followers.
01:52:27
Speaker
take jobbi abkekay a kaier kiatka so people trust you and that's what gives rise to a loyal burnoff followers
01:52:39
Speaker
And in Sodexo, our founder, Pierre Bellot, and I had the opportunity of working with him closely. He was the iconic first generation entrepreneur who was also the CEO and he built a $20 billion dollars company across 82 countries by the time I had left.
01:52:52
Speaker
That was it almost when he got retired at the ripe old age of 78. He used to say one thing, and he was from the top MBA college of France, HEC.
01:53:03
Speaker
He used to say one thing that
01:53:08
Speaker
I am the smartest in my company because I surround myself with people smarter than me.
01:53:17
Speaker
So my finance man knows better finance than me. My marketing man should know better marketing than me. My salesman is a better salesman than me. My service guy has the better ability to take shit from consumers than me and so on. So right so and basically you have to be surrounded by people who are better than you and that's your smartness.
01:53:38
Speaker
So a lot of simple learnings across life. And to top it all, hard, sincere work every single day.
01:53:49
Speaker
Create systems in the organization that facilitate people to work hard with the right kind of balance that is required today. A practice that I started...
01:54:02
Speaker
almost 28 years ago in Sodexo is Mancom meeting, management committee meeting when I had three people in management committee to speak of. But always I heard that even if it was just with my secretary, we'll have the management committee meeting every single Tuesday without fail. If I'm traveling, if anybody's traveling, it will be held now on Zoom, otherwise on telephone call.
01:54:23
Speaker
Every Tuesday morning, we'll have that meeting, we will see what have we achieved. till that day of the week, in the month, where would we reach any corrections to be made, brings people together, sorts out the problems. sand india And yeah, the biggest thing of all, as people say that you seek and you shall get.
01:54:46
Speaker
So what did I seek? Frankly, looking back, I did not seek money or ownership or entrepreneurship. I was a simple middle class guy. My dad was a teacher who left when I was 16.
01:54:58
Speaker
So I could not have imagined becoming an entrepreneur. I didn't come from a business family by far. So I did not seek that I'll own a business one day. I did not seek that I'll become a CEO at a young age.
01:55:12
Speaker
What I sought... and what drove my choices was a clean, apolitical work environment. Because what I could see is that I am
01:55:29
Speaker
averse to twisted talk, to political games played in companies.
01:55:41
Speaker
And I realized that within the first year of working, And I thought that I don't have much chance in corporate sector because, you know, I can't handle all this.
01:55:52
Speaker
And I can handle all the pressure in the world. I can handle negativity, but I can't handle politics.
01:56:00
Speaker
And I got an offer from Citibank when I was working with Bloplast. But I chose to go to Sudexo, a unknown name, because I knew I might have the chance to build something on my own.
01:56:15
Speaker
I didn't know the spelling of entrepreneurial spirit at that time. But I wanted to be apolitical. And I think God has given me that. Ever since I started my career, even in Bloplast, I had this independent little charge of making sky bags, which worked for me.
01:56:36
Speaker
And
01:56:39
Speaker
ah great company, great environment. And
01:56:46
Speaker
So I have always tried to build that kind of a culture, which is apolitical. How do you build that? Through open communication. In fact, communication is the topmost of our core values. And i I am at pains to explain to people, why communication? Why is it so important?
01:57:05
Speaker
I communication is important because people play politics with knowledge, with information. Okay. Even dirty communication.
01:57:23
Speaker
Right? So I always discourage. name Open bata karo na joker nye. And in the beginning, I think that maybe I can be wrong. But if all the people are doing this, I'm not doing this.
01:57:36
Speaker
But again, looking back, by and large, I've had successes in my life. So I think that it will okay. Unfortunately, there are the people don't follow this path. but the staff is better and it's better to Which is why they stay with me.
01:57:48
Speaker
I have not always been the best company, the highest paid company, but why have people lasted with me for long? Because companies don't become even more. So I think it's because they get a clean working environment where everyone gets space to fly as high as they can. Whatever their capability is, whether he is a sales officer, whether he is an ASM, whether he is a Zonal Manager, whether he Vice President, whether he is a General Manager.
01:58:16
Speaker
So I think that that has been a great thing. And
01:58:23
Speaker
I would encourage people to to you know be apolitical, not only in their behavior, but also ensure that their work culture, howsoever big big you may become, is the same.
01:58:37
Speaker
Amazing. Thank you so much for your time, sir. It was a real pleasure. Thank you, Akshay. Real pleasure.