The Leather Industry of India has seen a drastic change in the exports of the country. The country being a mere raw material supplier has transformed itself into a value-added product. Leather is one of the most widely traded commodities globally. The leather export in India has seen an increase during the 2020-21 fiscal year and let’s look at the reason for it.
The leather, footwear, and the export of its products have seen an increase in its export value to around USD 641.72 million in April – May 2021. The council of Leather Exports had provided the information.
The council for leather exports and the organization for apex trade promotion of the leather and leather products industry has also conveyed that the leather exports will maintain a similar trend in their growth and is expected to continue for the next few months.
Chairman of the council for Leather Exports, Sanjay Leekha on the Growth in leather exports
The newly elected chairman of the council for leather exports, Sanjay Leekha had said in a statement that the sector is back on the growth track after a long slowdown in the market due to the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic which had led to a fall of around 27.72 % in the exports for the year 2020 – 21.
He said that the sector has been growing and added that the outbound shipments have shown impressive growth during the current fiscal year. As per the latest data compared to the previous fiscal year, i.e., 2020 – 21 there was an increase in the number of exports.
The leather, footwear, and its products have seen an increase of around USD 641.72 million during the fiscal year April – May 2021 from USD 146.79 million during April-May 2020. He stated that this is considered to be a really good beginning for the sector and they are expecting to maintain it in the coming months. He also added in his statement that India is considered to be one of the favorite sourcing and investment destinations.
Top 10 Largest Leather Producing Countries in 2021
The Indian Footwear Accessories and Development Programme (IFLADP) that was started by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) during the year 2017 – 21 has played a major role in the modernization and technological up-gradation of production units and also adding more skills to the workforce.
This programme is one of the major reasons for increasing the production and skilling the workforce which has indirectly increased the exports of the country. With the support of the Government, there has been positive been efforts taken in the past in order to increase the capabilities of production as well as certain infrastructure facilities such as testing laboratories and design studios.
However, all these have collectively helped in increasing the exports of the country and also helped in becoming the exporter of high-quality products that adds value. CLE has stated that they have requested the government in order to continue the IFLADP programme and is under consideration.
The necessity for Digitalization in Leather Industry
The chairman of the organization had stressed the importance of digitalization and added that pandemic has bought the light for the importance of the digital era. In order to gain a lot of market access, they will have to ensure to use the various digital platforms effectively.
The council has organized around 12 virtual buyer-seller meets and various B2B events which are expected to be held in 17 different countries and have also planned around 20 different events which include international exhibitions, buyer-seller meets, and designer fair.
FAQ
Where does India export leather?
Hong Kong, Italy, China and Vietnam are the top leather export partners of India.
Which state is the largest producer of leather in India?
Tamil Nadu is the largest leather producing state in India. It accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s leather production.
Which city is famous for leather in India?
Kanpur is famous for its leather and is also known as the leather capital of India.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Holisol.
Logistics industry size is USD 215 Bn, growing at 10.5% CAGR. In which, the Third-party Logistics market size is USD 9 Bn growing at 16% CAGR, which happens to be Holisol’s target market. Holisol is building a tech-enabled end-to-end supply chain logistics platform that will help customers improve their product availability at the lowest possible cost. Holisol offers multi-channel fulfilment solutions for B2C & B2B businesses spanning across retail, fashion, lifestyle, FMCG, online marketplaces and auto industries.
Co-founded by Manish Ahuja, Naveen Rawat and Rahul S Dogar in 2009, Holisol has already got a pan-India presence and manages close to one million square feet of fulfilment space spread across 25+ fulfilment centers, 60+ hyperlocal fulfilment centers and 30+ integrated packaging sites. Let’s know the success story behind Holisol’s growth.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Rahul S Dogar (Managing Director and Co-Founder of Holisol Logistics) to know The Startup Journey and Growth Story of Holisol since its inception in 2009.
Holisol offers multi-channel fulfilment solutions for B2C & B2B businesses spanning across retail, fashion & lifestyle, FMCG, online marketplaces and auto industries. It also provides integrated packaging, logistics and returnable solutions to automobile, farm equipment & heavy engineering businesses.
Holisol is building a tech-enabled end-to-end supply chain logistics platform that will help customers improve their product availability at the lowest possible cost.
Holisol’s short-term goal is to add 20 new fulfilment centers and 400 hyperlocal centers to its network while increasing the reach to 95% of the consumption market. And the long-term goal is to set up 100 FCs and 800 HFCs by 2025 in the country. Its core belief is to offer customers an experience of working like their own extended team with affordable, strategic, and operational expertise.
Holisol – Logistics Industry Details
Logistics industry size is USD 215 Bn, growing at 10.5% CAGR. 3PL (Third-party Logistics) market, which is Holisol’s target market, is USD 9 Bn, growing at 16% CAGR. The market share info of Holisol is not available as the industry is highly fragmented and unorganized.
After spending many years in the industry, the founders realized that there was a market need for an organisation that can understand customer’s business and design solutions which fit their business needs instead of offering a “product” that requires the customer to fit in. On this idea, Holisol started on June 24, 2009.
Reminiscing the initial journey of Holisol, Mr. Rahul S Dogar (Managing Director and Co-Founder of Holisol Logistics) says –
“We wanted to build the knowledge layer on top of the logistics execution that is how our value proposition incepted i.e., Design-Implement-Manage. To get our positioning right from the beginning we started with theconsulting and solution design assignments and on-demand from our customer we scaled up to managing the end-to-end operations.
Our first assignment was with a marque Agri-consulting company that approached us to design a cold-chain logistics network across India to reduce fruits & vegetable wastage in the country. We were highly enthused with the purpose and scope of the project, and whole-heartedly decided to immerse ourselves and delivered it successfully.”
Rahul S Dogar continued on how Holisol expanded its scope of work and positioned itself –
“We expanded our scope of work from design-implement to management with a project for Genesis Colors, they had 3 warehouses and we designed a solution to consolidate all of them into one and set it up for them also ran the operations before training and handing it over to their team. Holisol solution improved the process efficiencies and helped Genesis in cutting down the cost.
In another project, Holisol got an opportunity to design implement and manage the fulfilment centre for e-commerce brand Jabong. The scope included infra set-up, IT set-up, resource deployment, process training and daily operations management. The business of Jabong scaled up considerably in a short period.
For the auto segment, we designed a reusable pallet for the packaging of axles for international transportation. We not only replaced the one-way expandable wooden packaging with a multiuse returnable packaging but also helped the customer in reducing in transit damages and loading & unloading time at both origin and destination. Holisol designed-implemented and managed the whole process of axles packaging.
These showcases helped in validating our ideas which further contributed to expanding Holisol’s customer base and scaling up the business”
Holisol – Product/Services Offered
Holisol has created an Omni/multi-channel fulfilment network with 120+ facilities across the country which gives its customer access to 85% of the consuming population in India.
Holisol’s network includes well connected best-in-class warehouses, fulfilment centers, hyperlocal fulfilment centers, pick-up centers, customer experience centers, exchange centers, refurbishment centers, automated sales centers etc. Focused on apparel, footwear, cosmetics, healthcare and grocery segments, this tech-enabled ever-expanding network is ready-to-use, versatile and flexible to take care of their needs and pain points.
Holisol also offers line-to-line integrated packaging and logistics solutions to 80+ automotive customers wherein any product coming out of the line is put on its own designed packaging unit (rack, pallet, bin, box etc.) and it gets transported, handled, stored in the same packaging unit until it gets consumed on the next line. The same packaging unit is then re-used, thus creating‘green’ supply chains.
These solutions have smoothened flow for Holisol’s customers and brought in much-needed efficiencies in terms of costs, productivity, damages, and seamless fulfilment. These solutions are replicable, and the team have been able to assist customers with expansion in global markets where professional packaging is highly valued.
“The USP is to operate like a customer’s extended arm bringing our ability to understand the need/problem and design-implement-manage solutions which helps them achieve their business objectives” says Rahul S Dogar, Co-founder & MD, Holisol
It initially started as a supply chain consultancy company wherein Holisol designed solutions for the customers and implemented them as proof of concept. While doing so more and more customers started asking the company to manage the operations as well, the team realized it as a huge opportunity especially in the e-commerce, fulfilment and packaging & logistics segment; that is how we build a full-service portfolio with a value proposition of design-implement-manage. It brought us recurring revenue and an opportunity to scale up the business.
“We have a subsidiary called Holisol Talent Solutions which takes care of the talent required to manage the end-to-end operations for our customer’s business” Rahul added.
Holisol was co-founded by Manish Ahuja, Naveen Rawat and Rahul S Dogar in 2009.
Rahul S Dogar – Co-founder & MD of Holisol
All the three founders previously worked together in APL Logistics and were in the supply chain logistics industry for almost a decade before deciding on Holisol. In their previous roles, they got opportunities to manage supply chains and logistics for quite a few global brands.
After working for many years, they realized that there was a market need for an organisation that can understand customer’s business and design solutions which fit their business needs instead of offering a “product” that requires a customer to fit in.
Headquartered in Delhi, Holisol today has a workforce of +200 supply chain enthusiasts who are continuously building value through leadership, innovation, and relationships.
“When it comes to hiring a “holisolian” our top priority is to acquire a talent who is aligned with our core values. We have built a culture of bonding & togetherness where everyone is respected, and our people are celebrated for their excellence. We look for people with attributes of simplicity and are eager to build their knowledge and innovate solutions which our customer needs.” says Rahul
Manish Ahuja | Co-founder, Holisol
Having 15+ years of working in the industry Manish has made Holisol a leader in integrated packaging & logistics solutions with new innovations. Before co-founding Holisol, he was responsible for service integrity in APL Logistics for India operations. He is a commerce graduate and has completed MBA in Marketing.
Naveen Rawat | Co-founder, Holisol
22+ years of industry experience, Naveen’s expertise is in designing fulfilment solutions for multi-channel & omnichannel retail. He drives innovation and is responsible for building new capabilities in Holisol. He has previously worked with APL Logistics as Head – Contract Logistics for their India operations. He is a B. Tech and completed MBA in Marketing.
Rahul S Dogar | Co-founder & MD, Holisol
22+ years of domain experience, worked with some of the leading brands such as Ikea, Agility and APL Logistics before co-founding Holisol. Rahul has experience working on both sides of the table which helped him in gaining deep insights into the supply chain. His expertise includes Strategy, Business Planning and P&L Management. He is a B. TECH and an MBA.
The name ‘Holisol’ originated from Holistic Solutions. Logistics as an organisation function impacts and get impacted by a lot of other functions like finance, marketing, production etc., Holisol wanted its solution to be ‘holistic’ by examining all aspects, hence ‘holistic solutions’.
Holisol Logo
Holisol – Business Model and Revenue Model
This is how Holisol makes money. Holisol’s three main Revenue Lines –
Offering warehousing and fulfilment services in terms of storage, inventory management, order processing and delivery. There are two models with this.
Multiuser FCs – the customers get charged on a variable basis their the throughput
Dedicated FCs – the customer gets charged a fixed monthly charge + mgmt. fee
3. Integrated packaging and logistics services where the customer pays Holisol for using its packaging units, warehousing, and transportation services.
Holisol – Startup Launch and Marketing Strategies
In the beginning, it was the founders’ network across the industry that brought business on board. Slowly, the word-of-mouth spread based on the good work which helped in getting more business on board. Word-of-mouth marketing continues to be a big business contributor for Holisol. However, in the last 5 years, Holisol has built a robust digital marketing practice wherein the focus has been to increase the outreach to the target audience through digital channels like – SEO, Social Media Marketing and E-mail marketing campaigns by sharing its stories.
Holisol’s digital marketing strategy is based on the quarterly themes it selects which is aligned with the business plans and goals. It builds campaigns around these themes and creates content around the key problem statement of the customers and industry and publishes them in the form of Blogs, Case Studies and Customer Success Stories. Along with this the team also creates Co-worker success stories to celebrate the excellence in its co-workers.
The key focus of Holisol for the marketing has been to reduce the sales efforts and increase Holisol’s outreach to the target customers and accelerate the pipeline with its digital marketing activities.
“What we focus on is insight-led marketing, our team focuses on building their understanding of the customers and their market. These insights are generated through the internal and external medium” Rahul added.
Holisol’s internal program “HoliSoul” focusses on engaging the co-workers and build their marketing orientation to enable them to become the marketer. This helps in building engagement and the trust of its customers.
Along with this, Holisol has a “Peer Engagement” program wherein it invites leaders from the industry for a Masterclass and with this, the team also expands the network of Holisol’s friends to enhance its word-of-mouth marketing activities.
Holisol uses these insights in building the content which provides valuable information and helps in solving the queries of the target customers. It values the time audience spends on its digital channels; Holisol aims to learn about them and serve them with the information they are looking for.
“There is a major dearth of talents in the supply chain logistics industry and at Holisol from the starting, we have put great emphasis on the learning and development of our people which contributed to the success of our customer’s business and their professional growth as well” says Rahul S Dogar, Co-founder & MD, Holisol
“Celebrating the Excellence in Holisolian” is a marketing campaign wherein Holisol focused on both internal and external communication of co-worker success stories. During this campaign, it recognized the co-workers and shared their story internally and externally both. It created a positive impact by boosting morale and inspiring its people, this also contributed to maintaining the high quality of services and products which made its customer’s happy and successful. This further means building more opportunity with existing customers and increasing the confidence of the target customers in entrusting their supply chain logistics to Holisol.
Initially, the team faced challenges in scaling-up as there were not many takers for concepts like multi-user facilities and re-usable packaging. These were also the concepts that needed to be built with a lot of depth in conceptualizing, designing, and engineering. Finding the right talent was a huge challenge with talent wars going on for supply chain professionals. The team at Holisol decided to take a little longer route and decided to build rather than buy, which has helped them deeply ingrain their engineering DNA, problem-solving, customer-centric attitude, and value-based culture.
One major change Holisol faced was in 2016-17 when it started building last-mile capability. Within a year it realized the key challenge related to the price-war with the heavily funded core player in this segment and increasing the market share. So, the team built the network and later scaled it down and went back to focus on their core competencies i.e., multi-channel fulfilment and packaging & logistics.
Holisol – Growth and Revenue
Holisol has a pan-India presence and manages close to one million square feet of fulfilment space spread across 25+ fulfilment centers, 60+ hyperlocal fulfilment centers and 30+ integrated packaging sites. Holisol serves 80+ large global and domestic brands across all its lines of business.
“In the next 18 months, we intend to add 20 new fulfilment centers and 200 hyperlocal centers to our network while increasing our reach to 95% of the consumption market” anticipates Rahul, Co-founder & MD, Holisol
In FY 21, Holisol turned EBIDTA profitable. Its models have got validated and are scaling up fast. Holisol is already at an ARR of INR 170 CR.
“We will do INR 240 CR. in FY 22, posting a growth of 80%” Rahul added.
Holisol – Funding and Investors
Holisol has raised a total funding of $27.24 Mn to date. It’s most recent funding was led by Northern Arc Capital in May 2021 for USD 3Mn in the form of debt.
Holisol’s Funding and Investors details are as follows –
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
2013
Angel Round
USD 1.5 Mn
Sundeep Bhandari-promoted Datavision Systems Pvt. Ltd.
2015
–
USD 10 Mn
CLSA Capital Partners
2017
–
USD 10 Mn
CLSA Capital Partners
2019
Debt
USD 2.74 Mn
Black Soil
May 2021
Debt Fund
USD 3 Mn
Northern Arc Capital
The first angel round happened in 2013, raising USD 1.5m from Sundeep Bhandari promoted Datavision Systems Pvt. Ltd. In 2015, Holisol raised USD 10 Mn from CLSA Capital Partners and in 2017, CLSA did a follow-on round of USD 10 Mn followed by USD 2.74 Mn debt from Black Soil in 2019. On May 21, 2021, Holisol raised a debt of USD 3 Mn from Northern Arc Capital.
Holisol has been consistently witnessing a surge in demand from its customers for its reliable digitized fulfilment services and the fund raised helped in fulfilling this demand and accelerate its growth further.
Holisol – Advisors and Mentors
Holisol’s mentor is Mr. Virendra Negi, his experience of investing, building businesses and mentoring entrepreneurs have brought deep insights into Holisol and helps the team in strategizing, building leadership and execute better.
Holisol – Acquisitions and Mergers
Holisol acquired Directship Fulfilment Services Private Limited in Jan 2017 and Vishwakarma Innovative Engineers Pvt. Ltd. in 2017
DHL, Delhivery, Ecom Express, Safe Express, K&N, FM Logistics, Mahindra Logistics, Stellar, LI & Fung, Bollore, Expeditors are some of Holisol’s competitors.
Tools used by Holisol to run the company
Holisol has a high-tech orientation, and the team works consistently in making all its activities and functions tech-enabled.
For organisation efficiency, Holisol has implemented the tech tool dOpEx (Daily Operational Excellence) which helps in managing the day-to-day task efficiently.
For people development and measuring the performance, Holisol has implemented dtalk (Development Talk) where the it breaks down the company’s yearly goal in the quarterly themes and create KPIs and Projects around them and review them on a quarterly basis to ensure faster alignment with the overall goals.
For managing HR activities, the team has implemented Holistart and for finance, we have developed Holibook.
For Omni-channel fulfilment the company is using in-house developed technology – WMS (Warehouse Management System), DMS (Delivery Management System), Holiscope (Last-Mile Delivery Management System), TMS (Transport Management System), OCFS (Omni-channel fulfilment solution), PnP (Pick and Pack System)
For Packaging, Holisol has implemented HOPS (Holisol Outbound Packaging System), ULMS (Unit Load Management System), YMS (Yard Management System)
Apart from these, the company is using AI tools – PPC (Production Planning & Control), DAP (Dispatch Allocation Planning), iGrid – Logistics Supergrid.
For managing its sales activities, Holisol has developed Holisight.
Holisol Logistics Pvt. Ltd. has received the prestigious award of “Emerging Company in Logistics Service Industry” category at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) SCALE Awards 2016 on 16th December 2016.
Holisol – Future Plans
Holisol’s mission is to set up 100 FCs and 800 HFCs to create a seamlessly connected logistics super grid by 2025 and enable customer success through its platform.
Holisol – FAQs
What is Holisol Logistics?
Holisol offers multi-channel fulfilment solutions for B2C & B2B businesses spanning across retail, fashion, lifestyle, FMCG, online marketplaces and auto industries. It also provides integrated packaging, logistics and returnable solutions to automobile, farm equipment & heavy engineering businesses.
Who founded Holisol?
Holisol was co-founded by Manish Ahuja, Naveen Rawat and Rahul S Dogar in 2009.
How much funding has Holisol raised?
Holisol has raised a total funding of $27.24 Mn to date. It’s most recent funding was led by Northern Arc Capital in May 2021 for USD 3Mn in the form of debt.
Who are the competitors of Holisol?
Holisol claims these companies as its competitors – DHL, Delhivery, Ecom Express, Safe Express, K&N, FM Logistics, Mahindra Logistics, Stellar, LI & Fung, Bollore, Expeditors.
How does Holisol make money?
Holisol makes money by offering warehousing and fulfilment services charged on variable or fixed basis, by providing its Logitech product in SaaS model and also by providing integrated packaging & logistics service.
Is Holisol an Indian Company?
Yes. Holisol is an Indian Company headquartered in Delhi, India
How much is Holisol’s Turnover?
In FY 21, Holisol turned EBIDTA profitable. Its models have got validated and are scaling up fast. Holisol is already at an ARR of INR 170 CR. “We will do INR 240 CR. in FY 22, posting a growth of 80%” Rahul (Co-founder of Holisol) says.
This article is part of Behind the Scene series by StartupTalky where we bring you the insights on how a company operates at ground level. Source ~ from the horse’s mouth that is as told by the founders, core management.
Ninjacart is Bengaluru based India’s largest B2B fresh produce supply chain company. It is a pioneer in solving one of the toughest supply chain problems of the world by leveraging innovative technology. Their high-quality and hygienically handled fresh produce ensures healthy food to consumers, with a promise of delivery within 12 hours!
Founded by Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran KK, Sharath Loaganathan, Sachin Jose, Thirukumaran Nagarajan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi in 2015, Ninjacart has successfully built a tech-enabled supply chain for fresh farm produce, delivering over 1,400 tons of fruits and vegetables daily.Ninjacart has become India’s one of the largest Fresh Produce Supply Chain platform.
StartupTalky interviewed Thirukumaran Nagarajan (Co-founder & CEO of Ninjacart) to get insights on how he is Operating India’s One of the Top Supply Chain Startups Ninjacart. In this post, you’ll get a complete insight on Ninjacart’s Supply chain model, how it functions, Ninjacart’s business model, growth hacks & more.
And here’s what Mr. Thirukumaran Nagarajan has got to say –
How did Ninjacart’s business model and revenue model look like in its very initial days and how it changed gradually?
Ninjacart commenced business in 2015 as a B2C model. Our main aim was to deliver fresh produce to the end consumer within 60 minutes while providing online inventory to retail outlets. We launched our operations in Bengaluru. During those initial 6 months of operations, we realized that the production side of the supply chain is fragmented and retail outlets struggle to source fresh produce on time. It helped us to understand the inefficiencies in the supply chain. These systems relied heavily on expensive and erratic last-mile delivery fulfillment, increasing pressure on the retailers and us as a delivery provider.
This prompted us to pivot our business model from B2C to B2B and we started sourcing fresh produce from farmers directly, simultaneously supplying to retail outlets and small businesses. Addressing challenges like persuading retailers and grocery store owners to take their business online and introducing technology to farmers as a more trustworthy alternative to harvest and sell their produce, Ninjacart’s B2B model began to thrive and we knew we had created something impactful.
ninjacart Logo
There were plenty of hurdles we had to overcome. Evaluating the entire network and identifying the gaps is one matter, but actually being able to implement our solution is quite another.
At the offset, the two major obstacles we set out to tackle were – convincing retailers and grocery store owners to take their business online and persuading farmers to trust us, a tech startup, over the traditional middleman they had known for years.
Then it was devising a mechanism to standardize the pricing of fresh produce. More often than not, farmers would sell their produce for a loss, given the perishable nature of their goods. Therefore, we needed a solution to provide high value for farmers while ensuring the best possible output for the end party.
Limited connectivity, inadequate storage infrastructure, and mismatched supply-demand led to post harvest losses which needed to be controlled with the provision of proper tools and equipment for harvesting. Simultaneously, we also had to train/educate the farmers.
Easing the challenges faced by retailers, from exhausting procurement processes to poor quality management and competitive pricing.
Introducing more sophisticated management and new technologies to improve efficiency in the supply chain, making it low cost, effective, and super fast.
What have been major growth hacks in the early days of Ninjacart?
At Ninjacart, technology has played a major role in making the food supply chain more efficient and independent to handle advanced logistics. Since we started functioning as a B2B model, there is plenty of learning and transformation involved.
As an agritech startup, it was difficult to gain trust in the farmers’ community as they prefer to work with a familiar face rather than a tech company. To understand the framework at the grassroots level, the core team of Ninjacart made overnight trips in mandis. It took us almost three months to determine the price of tomatoes at which farmers sell to the middleman. The timespan of fresh produce being sold in the market is very limited. Within a few hours, the fresh produce is segregated, sorted, and sold. The farmer has to harvest and bring the item to mandi and then figure the price and demand, leading to huge losses as they are unaware of the market conditions.
Ninjacart has solved this issue with the innovation of the Farmer Harvest Calendar, which gives farmers a week’s notice on what is expected of them.
In the traditional supply chain wastage goes up to 25% which Ninjacart succeeds in shrinking up to 4% by leveraging deep machine learning. Furthermore, with the adoption of traceability infrastructure, we ensure food safety until last-mile delivery.
Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-founder and CEO of Ninjacart
The access of farmers to warehouse facilities in India is limited. In the absence of adequate cold storage and efficient warehousing facilities, fresh produce gets wasted even before it arrives in the market or to the end consumer. Therefore, the implementation of tech-incentive processes helped Ninjacart to develop more controlled distribution chains. Over the years Ninjacart has expanded its operations, we are currently operating in 11 major cities across India and promise a delivery within 12 hours. The positive response and overall impact has strengthened our vision to change the way India consumes food.
How do you manage such a large supply chain model?
At Ninjacart, we strive to tackle some of the most difficult structural issues while keeping pace and performance at the forefront of everything we do. Being a supply chain company we have a large workforce at the ground level, making labor a significant business cost.
It starts with farmers bringing fresh produce to the Collection Centre, where it is weighed, batched, and dispatched to our Fulfilment Centers (FC) and Distribution Centers (DC) located throughout the city. Our algorithms then establish an optimal route plan for drivers to reach their destinations with clearly defined points, set a dispatch schedule, and fix arrival slots.
To plan each route with full capacity at minimal cost, we also consider the distance between the Collection Centers (CC) as well as the distance between the Fulfilment Centers (FC) and Distribution Centers (DC). With sophisticated software to understand the geography of the city, the maximum capacity of the vehicles used, cost required. All of this adds up to enough information to run and build a distribution route for the day.
It can be summarized as follows:
The first step is to acquire and understand the ‘Farmer Harvest Calendar’, which would give the team an overview of fruits and vegetables available in each season. This makes Ninjacart aware of the demand and supply, and gives farmers a week’s notice.
The notice period allows farmers to understand the market expectations. Our technology helps us to gain a complete understanding of past buying data, such as – order history and its frequency to figure out a pattern. It helps us to know which items to procure.
Once the produce is procured as per the demand analysis, it is then put into crates at the collection centers
After the produce is weighed and tagged, a message goes out to the farmer through an app which details the supplied quantity and the price so that the amount is credited to the farmers’ bank account the subsequent day
Ninjacart then moves the crates to the fulfilment centers. With the use of special trolleys these crates are loaded and unloaded, ensuring a quicker turnaround time as compared to the traditional lift-and-place logistic systems. The entire process is monitored through an app that the company has built with a sophisticated algorithm
As next steps, these crates are loaded onto vehicles at the distribution centers for delivery, which starts at 2.00 am daily. There are no names on the crates as everything is enabled through the app. Every crate has a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag so that the company knows exactly which vegetables and fruits have been delivered
More importantly, the empty crates don’t necessarily return to the same collection center and Ninjacart’s technology ensures that the chain remains efficient. This has enabled tighter control so that operations are profitable
Ninjacart also maps the simplest routes for drivers to reach their destinations with clearly identified points
How implementing AI and machines has helped the company to grow?
Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics drive decision-making at Ninjacart, and help perform complex human tasks accurately.
The use of generative models and programming helps Ninjacart to accomplish a recommendation engine. The prediction model is used to analyze hundreds and thousands of market factors.
For instance, we analyze past buying data of consumers and the frequency of orders to determine the kind of produce that needs to be procured. It enables us to track produce and thus, provide complete transparency within the food value chain. This way, we inform farmers about what is expected of them for that particular month by issuing a ‘Harvest the farm’ calendar offering weather forecast.
Diagnostic analytics techniques combine growth plans with historic demand data and market conditions to organize the weekly sales and procurement forecast at SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) level. Another analytics tool is predictive analytics, which tells us what is likely to happen. It identifies potential threats in the supply chain spotting optimal patterns while neutralizing errors.
The Ninjacart Supply Chain relies on vehicle route planning to transport tons of fresh produce from farms to retailers in less than 12 hours. The algorithm saves the details of retail customer orders made the day before. It determines the best delivery route based on factors such as customer position, tonnage, crate count, delivery time window, and so on. Similarly, the algorithm uses vehicle information such as vehicle type, start place, maximum crate size, maximum number of points, available time window, and average vehicle speed to allocate the delivery route for the next day’s door-to-door deliveries to stores. After considering both the factors, the algorithm perfectly optimizes the vehicle route towards the customer locations. The route is decided to use the vehicles more efficiently in terms of vehicle usage, occupancy, and positioning the orders to be delivered.
Our algorithms automate the planning and optimization of logistics by mapping 1000+ routes for vehicles crisscrossing 15 states for delivering to customers daily across 7 cities.
We have adopted special trolleys to load and unload the crates, ensuring a quick turnaround compared to the normal lift-and-place logistic systems. The entire process is monitored through an app that helps us place crates in a particular order so that the team can deliver faster. At Ninjacart, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) plays a crucial role in every step of our supply chain, including internal control. Future-ready ERP increases efficiency, lowers operational costs, and acts as one source for information that permits agility and rapid decision transformation.
What major initiatives were taken during Corona to keep the whole operation running and support farmers?
The operations at Ninjacart were at a standstill during the initial days of the lockdown as the government regulations were unclear on which part of the supply chain could keep running. Despite that, we worked around-the-clock to fill the gap between supply and demand by deploying several initiatives. Our problem-solving approach helped the entire supply chain network one way or the other. These initiatives helped farmers to sell their produce directly to the end consumers. At the same time, it benefited consumers as they were able to buy fresh produce at subsidized rates.
There was uncertainty and fear amongst the consumers as supermarkets were closed at the time. After analyzing the situation, we concluded that we have the infrastructure to serve society by bringing food to their doorstep. The execution part was difficult as we had to expand our operations to directly reach the apartments and societies across cities. We created and disseminated a Google Form on social media for people in residential complexes to order fresh produce in bulk. It was a huge success, and we helped thousands of people in 7 cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, and Pune during the lockdown.
Additionally, to ensure that essential commodities reached everyone in need, we started a special program to sell at subsidized rates to old age homes, orphanages, community kitchens and slums. Many NGOs worked with us to feed numerous people, creating a huge impact during a period of crisis.
At Ninjacart, we were flooded with calls from farmers seeking our help in finding end consumers as they were left stranded with their harvested produce. It was time to step up and help our farmers as a way of showing gratitude and support.
We launched ‘Harvest The Farm’ initiative asking consumers to buy fresh produce from Ninjacart at cheaper prices through Swiggy, Zomato, and Dunzo. With the existing supply chain in place, we identified the farmer with a ready harvest, purchased their produce, and helped them recover their cost.
The lockdown gave us an opportunity to work towards our vision of establishing a traceability infrastructure that will help trace fresh produce to its origin from any given stage of the supply chain.
On the occasion of World Food Safety Day on 7th June, we launched FoodPrint. FoodPrint allows us to know everything about the food we eat. Starting from – identifying the farmer, the date and time of harvest, the truck that carried the produce, the warehouse that processed it, the helper who handled the product at the warehouse, the retailer who bought the product, and finally how it was delivered to your doorstep, this endeavor focuses on driving home transparency.
What are different tools the company uses for smooth flow of the work and the organisation?
We have removed intermediaries and replaced them with Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. We have taken a constraint-oriented modeling approach. Constraints are based on distance, vehicle, cost, capacity and time. After defining these constraints, we use a metaheuristic optimization technique (Guided Local Search), to maximize objective function and reduce supply cost. Every process and action is governed by technology at Ninjacart.
The tools developed and implemented by the core of Ninjacart can be concluded as follows:
Facial Recognition: The software quickly captures the entire face, which is then fragmented into small pieces and converted into data streams. To mark attendance, 90% accuracy is required each time. This data can then be used to track worker productivity of employees from start to finish and at various points in the supply chain, as well as to solve many of the common problems that arise to ensure an order is delivered on time and without hiccups.
Futureready ERP: Mobile-ready ERP ensures removes all paper use of in the supply chain
Demand Forecasting: Leveraged deep machine learning to perfect forecasting to 97% and reduce the overall wastage to 4% [Traditional supply chains have wastage up to 25%].
Farmer apps: Ninjacart also have specific apps for the farmers wherein they help them not only in demand forecasting but also with harvest planning and determining the price indent
Connected Logistics: Speed and price can make or break any supply chain. Ninjacart’s indigenous route optimization and utilization keeps the load factor at 92% and puts fresher vegetables on the plate (they move the produce from farm to store within 12 hours) at a cost almost 1/3rd of the traditional supply chain
Vehicle Route Planning is vital in driving the Ninjacart Supply Chain
Being the top player in the niche, do you plan to acquire small startups to expand?
We aim to learn and grow together as everyone is trying to solve the fragmented food supply chain in India. In recent years, we have witnessed new players entering the market only to help the farmers in their pre- and post-harvesting journey. At Ninjacart, we hope to bring as much innovation and solution as we can so that the end consumers and farmers have a seamless and safe supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. The launch of FoodPrint has enabled us to expand our vision of making farmers aware of residue-free farming methods.
We have partnered with Kilofarms, an agritech startup company. Together we have produced the first batch of residue free tomatoes and we intend to add 18 more residue-free fruits and vegetables by the end of this year. Leveraging each other’s tech capabilities, we have developed tech-enabled methods such as drip irrigation to assist farmers in achieving the finest grade of fresh produce through residue-free methods. It not only enables the production of food through optimal farm inputs and low Maximum Residue Limit (MRL), it is also scalable, practical and more affordable than pure organic food.
For most of us, our morning starts with a nice cup of coffee whether it is at a local stall nearby, a Cafe Coffee Day franchise or just homemade Nescafe, but the story behind any coffee product is a fascinating one indeed. From the harvesting of coffee beans to distribution of coffee packets, the entire process is like a complete journey of something that is a really important part of our daily lives. In order to understand this journey, we need to first understand what a Supply Chain actually is.
Supply Chain
Supply Chain is an integrated network between the supplier, distributors, and intermediaries all the way to the final consumer. The length of a supply chain depends upon a number of factors, one of them being the product itself.
As for Coffee, its Supply Chain consists of several parts which have been summarized as follows.
A Brief Summary of Supply Chain of Coffee
Planting- Coffee Seeds are best suited to grow in a humid climate with a temperature of around 23 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius. They are generally planted in a large sheet format with shaded setup to prevent excess sunlight.
Harvesting
It takes about 3-4 years for the coffee seed to ripen into a cherry red fruit. These fruits can be picked by hands or machines depending on the firm.
Processing
The fruits are further processed by drying them under the sun or by a machine after removing their pulps. After this stage the beans are exported to the desired parties.
Milling
The parchment layer of the bean is removed by machines and then further sorted in three sub steps Hulling, Polishing and Sorting.
Exporting
These Beans that come out of the Milling process are known as green coffee, these have a higher price than the beans that are exported after the Processing stage.
Tasting
Different variants require different tastes and the sorting of the beans after being tasted repeatedly are done on the basis of required quantities. A bulk of the coffee beans is used in sampling, the planting scale is very large.
Roasting
This is the process that transforms green coffee into the brown beans that we are familiar with, there are different methods and machines for roasting green coffee. This process is can be done at vendor sites like Starbucks as the roasted beans are better when served fresh.
Demand For Coffee in India
Although tea is the much preferred drink in India, the demand for coffee has been rising rapidly in both the rural and urban areas. With coffee chains like CCD, Cothas Coffee and many more being set up all around India with coffee products available for almost every income class, the consumption is likely to rise by more than 2.5% heading into 2021. As of now, the average consumption of coffee per year in India is around 120000 tons.
Sustainable Supply Chain of Coffee
A Supply Chain is said to be sustainable if it is operated after taking necessary precautions and measures that prevent damage to the environment and the ecosystem.
A sustainable coffee market was established in 1988 under Fair Trade Certified after a sharp decline in the prices, several reforms were made to the existing supply chain and production of coffee.
Top Brands in India
Nescafe is the leader for the last 3 years
Nescafe
It maybe one of the most popular brands in India, it is a main home stay in a lot of households because of its affordability and popularity. It is widely available through different variants and is the most well known to a casual consumer than any other brands.
Bru
Although not as popular as Nescafe, Bru has been in the Indian market for a long time and is still preferred by a lot of people.
CCD
Café Coffee Day is more popular as a place rather than the product, however it is still a go to place for a lot of working population especially in metro cities. It is a viable alternative to Starbucks.
Speaking of, Starbucks is the undoubtedly the most popular coffee chain in the global market. Although only affordable by the richer people in India it has a well established market with more volume in revenue than any other coffee chain.
The Future of Coffee Market in India
Considering the rapid rise of the consumption of coffee it may seem as if there are no challenges, but the picture is not as clear as it may seem.
Most of the coffee consuming population comprises of metro and urban population. Furthermore majority of the Indian population lives in rural and sub urban areas where tea is the preferred drink. Furthermore because of coffee being an acquired taste it will be really difficult to break into those markets.
Souvik Dey
