Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Guru Prasad: I travel around the world. With what we observed, we saw a big gap in quality cleaning aids space in India. Also when we look into the space of Kitchen and Home care products, either products are of very low quality or they will be imported from other countries. We wanted to break this tone and design premium quality Kitchen and Home care products and fully manufacture them in India. This motivated us to work on many products and now we are launching them one after another under the brand HICLEAN. As expected, the response from the market for new gen and India specific products if overwhelming.
Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Transion Export
Guru Prasad: We have two divisions. One is Eco-Products division and other is FMCG division. The former is predominantly into export of eco-friendly kitchen and personal care products apart from other eco friendly products for agriculture. The later is into manufacture of premium quality FMCG products for Kitchen and Home care. Our range includes SS Sponge Kitchen Scrubbers, Cellulose wipe sponges, Stove sponges, brushes etc.
Great Companies: What makes Transion Export from hundreds of other similar service providers?
Guru Prasad:
Each of our products are ingeniously developed with Indian homes in mind. We source most of the materials in India and manufacture them at our factories in Coimbatore. Also, we do not pay royalties to offshore companies and therefore we shall be able to bring our products with competitive pricing. We are in the process of building a robust supply chain so that every corner of the county gets premium quality Kitchen and Home cleaning products. We wanted to introduce as much range and diversity in our portfolio so that all homes and their every need are well satisfied by our products.
Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
Guru Prasad: In any business three important things determine its success. Technology, Investment, Market timing - Each of these three were great challenge for us, given our humble roots. We did not have deep pockets for large investments but we had the frugality to work on machinery and sometimes retrofit old ones to get the scale needed. The downside of this is the long time involved. We had to toil to balance the time and scale while implementing new technologies. With our products receiving unexpected support from the end customers, we are being pushed to work even more to bring new ranges into the market.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Transion Export?
Guru Prasad: In next 5 years, we wanted to become a Star Export house for our Eco-Products Division. For our FMCG division, we wanted to scale up our manufacturing and expand with 50 SKU's and and a second production space. We do not want to set targets based on revenues or profits but on the reach and capabilities. We believe when reach and capability are achieved, the rest shall follow. We also wanted to invest in our team and build a good base for a moon-shoot future.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Guru Prasad: Take Risks and learn from failures. Never give up. This is not my advice but is what I tell to myself every morning.
Our generation is designed to take save jobs and settle. We have to break these mental barriers. For a market we have in India and for the value we can deliver to our people, sky is not the limit for any entrepreneur.