Mudit Agarwal, Founder at GrassPly

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Mudit Agarwal: Trees cannot be saved by writing ‘SAVE TREES’ on paper, which is also made by chopping down trees. That is paradoxical.

I have always believed that there is an alternative to everything and wood is no exception. It is only in the year 2010 that I got to know about the uses/features of bamboo after my late uncle offered me a job at his company that manufactures bamboo plyboards in Arunachal Pradesh.

Looking at the opportunities and future scope that bamboo offers, I decided to start out on my own and thus, in the year 2013 GrassPly was born. We were a trading company initially and switched to manufacturing in FY20-21.

We are driven by our vision to be an environment friendly company.

Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by GrassPly

Mudit Agarwal: We are manufacturers of bamboo plyboards and bamboo flooring. We also make pre-fabricated bamboo structures on a turnkey project basis.

Great Companies: What makes GrassPly different from hundreds of other similar service providers?

Mudit Agarwal:

Quality has always been the basis of our product development. Right pricing is what takes our products places and after sales services is our USP.

Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?

Mudit Agarwal: Even though bamboo has progressed a lot in China, Indians still consider it a ‘poor man’s timber’. So, a bamboo product is perceived to be cheap, whereas, it is actually the opposite. Bamboo goes through a lot of processing and treatment before it is ready to hit the market in its product form. People need to be made aware about bamboo as an option, Governments still give importance to wood based products in their tenders.

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for GrassPly?

Mudit Agarwal: We see a steady rise in demand YoY for bamboo plyboards and bamboo flooring. So that will encourage us to increase production capacity. R&D on new technology for making better bamboo plyboards is at an advance stage.

We also plan to expand our product portfolio by adding other bamboo-based products such as bamboo fabrics, bamboo charcoal, cane furniture.

So, in the next 5 years, we will see new additions to our existing dealer network in new markets, greater product penetration, brand building and of-course, saving a lot more trees!