Hong Kong-headquartered Crown Worldwide Group a leading global logistics company sees India as one of the most promising markets, the most probably indication of this is the fact that Jennifer Harvey, the Group CEO’s first official trip to India. In a select media interaction, Harvey reiterated that the potential for India to grow is huge.
At present, India operations contribute around 12-13 percent of the company’s Asia revenues. While the privately-held company does not share region-specific numbers, its global revenues exceeded over $650 million (Rs 5,360 crore) turnover last year. While there were unprecedented challenges in the last couple of years on the back of limited movement on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, things have finally started opening up.
On the other hand, Crown Group also took the time to hive off certain non-performing businesses and restructure. “The pandemic was kind of a blessing in disguise,” says Tze Sheng Kong, CEO Asia, Crown Worldwide Group.
The company focuses on individual relocation services, corporate relocation services, corporate data and information secured storage, fine arts logistics and storage, and wine storage among others.
In fact, while it has garnered and maintained healthy growth across its services in India, it has been mulling entering the niche wine storage service industry in India for the last 2 years.
“The wine storage service industry is quite a CAPEX-heavy business, there are hardly 3-4 players in the country, with 2 being family-run business. It is quite an interesting segment, and we are exploring the niche space, but we don’t want to get into any business just for the sake of it. In the current era, the entry barriers is high, and once we invest there we cannot take it back. There are niches and riches, we want to focus on the niches that give the best returns and what our shareholders are looking for,” says Srinivas Krishnan, Regional MD – South Asia, Crown Worldwide Group.
The company at present has 24 warehouses spread across the country, of which 3 – in Mumbai and two in Chennai –are company-owned. Going forward, the idea is to acquire a number of leased warehouses.
It has already identified land in Bengaluru, and Delhi, a second warehouse in Mumbai, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad for further growth. The idea is to play to its strength.
Responding to a query on the company opting for inorganic growth in terms of partnerships or acquisitions, Kong says “We are open-minded and look at options, costs and possible integration. We have been buying businesses in other countries and integrating them into our existing business. However, he adds that the company is not chasing growth for just the sake of it.
“Is there any gap in our India business that we need to plug in? The answer is No. We have organically built our footprint and operations. We are open-minded but we are not actively trying to look at acquisitions in India,” concludes Harvey.