A yearning to do beyond the conventional made Umang Srivastava quit his plush job in 2007 and give-in to the demands of entrepreneurship. He hasn’t looked back since then. Staying true to its name, Bonita, which means 'beautiful', seems to have carved a beautiful and successful journey through the years, making a mark for itself in India and overseas markets.

Neha Dewan | August 2016 Issue | The Dollar Business

Sporting in a plain grey shirt and black trousers, he looks understated and at ease in his simplistic style. But appearances, as they say, are always deceptive. A zestful passion for his entrepreneurial spirit and vision made Umang Srivastava quit his successful corporate career in 2007, at Arttdinox India, to start his own venture of home utility products. And the risk paid off! What started off as a company with a 60 lakh turnover in FY2013 is now looking to notch up Rs.100 crore in the next fiscal!

“People call me stubborn and arrogant all the time. But my stubbornness has a clear vision to it. I know what I am looking for,” Srivastava shrugs nonchalantly.
Prior to launching his own company, Srivastava played a prominent role in setting up the towel business at Trident group and scaled it up to $40 million in five years. Later, he was associated with setting up Arttdinox – the lifestyle product division of Jindal Stainless – with a special focus on its export business. In three years, he pushed up the business there to $15 million.

But a yearning to do more made him eventually give up his corporate career and embark on a new path in 2007. He later partnered with Neeraj Mittal who was previously the sourcing manager at home furnishing company IKEA. At the start, they functioned more like a buying office, helping international brands develop their complete product range in India, setting up factories for them and later advising them on business development in the market. “That’s how the business started. And we did pretty well in this domain. We worked with Walmart and a lot of other international brands,” he recalls.
 

Turn of The Tide

However, it was only in 2012 when the company saw an inherent gap in the domestic market for eclectic home utility products and thought about creating a market for these products in India. And it was then that ‘Bonita’ was born. The product category at Bonita India includes microwave safe stainless steel bowls, clothes drying stands, laundry baskets, folding wardrobes and other functional home utility products.

When the company started, the market was dominated by unorganised players, with suspect product quality and the upwardly mobile Indians fulfilling their requirements by shopping for these products during their trips abroad. But, there was a clear gap. “When we did our research, we saw that Indian customers clearly wanted something unique. Internationally, customers want more of plain colours – greys, blues, beige or earthen colours. They also like it to be light weight. Whereas in India, especially women, they want more colours, designs and prints. And they look more for sturdiness,” he avers.

Umang Srivastava quit his successful corporate career in 2007 to start Bonita India, which is now looking to notch up Rs.100 crore in the next fiscal.

Though Srivastava and Mittal did try to reason with the international brands wanting to set up shop in India to accordingly change their strategy, the brands were not quite convinced. And this is when the duo realised that a gap for such products exists – not just in India but in international markets too. The idea to make it beautiful and not just the typical boring category struck their mind. “Bonita means beautiful and the idea was to make this a beautiful lifestyle category – something which people would be proud to own,” he emphasises. Thus, came by a complete line in storage and organising of ironing, drying and laundry products, with the most recent addition being products that can make the kitchen space more functional. 

Interestingly, one of the products that they have launched and for which they also have a worldwide patent is a stainless steel bowl which can be used in microwave. Now that's innovation!
 

Changing Mindsets

The time now is of course a far cry from the initial days which were full of struggle. Srivastava recalls the early days as ‘extremely difficult’ which continued till the first two years of their launch in 2012. “We were told in no uncertain terms that we are doomed to fail. People told us bluntly that there is no space for such a brand in this segment and that we won’t sell,” he tells The Dollar Business.

Their first stop was at the modern retail stores who were willing to take it on as a private label. However, Srivastava was not keen on that. So, they instead went to the general trade channel in the retailer-distributor network. Even here, the first year was met with a lot of discouragement. “They kept saying that our products will not work. This is heavy, that is light, and so on. Everything we did seemed wrong to them. So, it was extremely difficult from that perspective – convincing people that this product category will do well,” he recalls.

But not one to give up without a fight, Srivastava and Mittal persisted on their beliefs all along the way. Interestingly when they launched, they were high priced as compared to the other ironing boards or dryers available in the market. They were also advised to lower their price points or not to invest in packaging, which could lead to reduced costs. But turning deaf ears then by not compromising on their brand value actually worked well for the duo. And indeed over a period of two years, customer acceptance and buying behaviour changed dramatically. This also led to the modern retail channel finally culminating for them in 2014, starting with Shoppers Stop. “That was a big breakthrough for us since they don’t entertain a brand unless they see some potential. From that time to now, we are almost in all the stores including Spencer’s, Big Bazaar, HyperCITY, HomeStop, to name a few,” Srivastava says with a glint of pride.

In fact, a breakthrough came even at home. Hailing from a service background, initially Srivastava had only told his wife (amongst all family members) when he left his job. But today his father himself is in a consulting role for Bonita, clearly indicating the appreciation for his son’s entrepreneurial vision.

 The Real Challenge

The main challenge for the brand, clearly, was breaking the conventional mindset. The initial challenge for them was to beat people’s skepticism that the return per square feet wouldn’t come by. “We broke this mindset in a very innovative way. We used the same space, but our ticket value was higher. Most people couldn’t visualise that if they sold 100 buckets priced at Rs.100, they would be selling Rs.10,000 worth of goods. But even if they sold five of our products, they would get their revenue. However, they did not see things from this perspective and were unable to visualise,” he rues.

However, this perception slowly changed after the brand started performing well. HyperCITY, for instance, used to import from China and would do their own private labels. When Bonita started, the private label had 70% space and Bonita was accorded 30%. Now, in a complete role reversal, Bonita has 80% space while it is 20% for the label!

And this acceptance was reflected in overseas markets as well. At renowned international chain Bed Bath & Beyond, Bonita is the only Indian brand available at the online store. Srivastava says that even though $500 million worth of goods are exported to the chain through various companies from India, none of it goes under any brand, with them being the only Indian brand in its name. “We were very clear and adamant that we will do it only under our brand name. We refused a $2 million programme with them as they wanted us under a private label. It was tough to refuse but we did it and we are happy that it paid off. It is basically a case of instant gratification versus a long term one. A lot of my friends at that time told me that I have gone mad!” he says almost gleefully.

Bonita has received great responses from buyers at trade fairs where it has participated across India and overseas.

A Globalised Future

At present, the company exports to about 25 countries such as US, Mexico, Canada, countries in Middle East and many more. The plan is to attain footprints in 35 countries by the end of next year and also to deepen the reach within these markets. About 95% of the company's products are manufactured in India with a minuscule quantum being imported from China for plastic components.

Given the onslaught of 'Made-in-China' products in most of the categories the company deals in, isn’t ‘Make in India’ tough? When quizzed on this, Srivastava smiles, remembering an apt analogy to support his perspective. “You see, it is just like how lot of couples who are infertile or cannot have a child for some reason or the other. They will keep going for IVF even though it is difficult and it is way easier to adopt instead. But they would still want to try. So it’s the same case here. By importing, you are not building anything here… and in any case, China is not cheap anymore,” he reasons.

Srivastava, however, does wish that it would be a great initiative if the government can amend the ‘start-up’ definition. He says that the company’s first financial year should be taken into consideration as the initial year for a start-up than the year in which it was incorporated. Besides this, the speed of funding is another constraint which causes a gap according to him. “The banks are not able to match the pace at which the industry is growing. This creates a challenge for people like us who are on a high growth path. We suffer and are not able to scale to the potential that we could have,” he asserts.

In retrospect, did his stubbornness actually prove a boon for Bonita India? “Stubbornness helps as long as you have a clear vision. It has to be logical too. I had a very clear thought-process. It is like playing chess – if your thought-process and strategy are clear, you would know why you are placing your pawn here or your queen there...call it smart stubbornness. That can only happen when you have thought of 4-5 lines of defence – once you have thought through that plan, your obstinacy is bound to work to your benefit!” he reasons.

Well, Bonita has recently received a few good commitments from big retail brands in Slovenia and Croatia. And that says it all!