Shahed Ali Khan, operations head, Nipun talks about the company’s expansion plans, the existing challenges in the Indian food service equipment industry and the future trends that are going to drive it. By Rituparna Chatterjee
What new products would you be launching this year and/ or showcasing at the Food Hospitality World 2015 exhibition?
Refrigeration equipments particularly for retail and super markets/ hyper market applications would be our key focus with a series of new launches being scheduled this season. Food Hospitality World 2015 – Mumbai would be a platform to reach out to a relatively newer market. We believe this opportunity to engage with prospective buyers would mark our presence as a pleasant alternate and reliable vendor partner in one of the largest and key markets in India.
The food service equipment supply industry is per se largely unorganised and there is limited statistical data available to draw upon a road map of future prospects. Therefore we see here an opportunity in providing a more organised format of all ‘under one roof’ concept extending our supply ability from food service equipments alone presently to hotel furniture, table and bakery ware, crockery and cutlery, linen, ware wash equipments and audio visual systems. This would be a part of our expansion proposed to be started in Tier I cities with exclusive stores beginning September 2015 with the first store in Bengaluru.
Which of your existing products do you see an increased demand for in the Indian hospitality market?
Refrigeration equipments for the hotel industry and retail applications have been witnessing a sharp increase in demand. Our endeavour would be focused towards new product launches in the said categories. Food retail constitutes close to 70 per cent of India’s total retail market pegged at US$ 490 billion and close to 1/4th of such food retail needs controlled/ regulated temperature conditions for storage and dispensing of food commodities. It is therefore pertinent that the demand for quality display refrigeration equipments would continue to see an upswing. Conventionally food display cabinets have had numerous disadvantages of inconsistent temperature and condensation affecting the visibility and aesthetics thereby causing considerable loss of food products stored therein and negatively impacting sales of retailers. Nipun refrigeration equipments are designed to deal with the above factors and enhance visibility and performance and thus today they are preferred by most retail chains.
Which are your major import markets and what products are you presently importing from these countries?
Our imports are essentially from Germany, France, Malaysia and Taiwan. While we initially leveraged more on renowned brands from these geographies, in the recent past we have slowly and steadily moved to a job work module with global manufacturers wherein design attributes are shared by us to customise equipment design and functionality to meet Indian operating environment. Our endeavour has been to provide an integrated product mix to cater to all segments of food service requirements on both hot and cold verticals. In order to provide a comprehensive solution we have also recently engaged manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru for fabrication of stainless steel work benches making ourselves a one stop solution for restauranteurs and hoteliers.
What is your present distribution reach in the India market and which new locations do you hope to tap this FY?
Being headquartered in Bengaluru our strength so far has been in the southern region. This industry demands a strong interface between planning, execution, implementation and after sales service and therefore geographical growth is only possible and/or justified with infrastructure and human capital presence in close vicinity of target markets.
Goa is presently represented by our channel partner VK Consultants and Distributors catering to the western region upto Pune. We hope to reach out to Mumbai, Gujarat and Rajasthan prior to the close of the FY and consider a pan India presence to be a possible outcome prior to the end of the calendar year.
What has been the company’s revenue growth in 2014 and what targets have you set for 2015?
We have been fortunate to have achieved a 100 per cent topline growth YOY for each of the preceding three financials and having set this precedent, we hope to continue to do the same in the future as well.
What future trends do you foresee in this segment?
The trend would undoubtedly be on comprehensive solutions including design, planning and implementation rather than standalone sales. Product developments and improvisation is of course an ongoing process that we constantly focus on and for which a large amount of resources are allocated towards R&D and training of field personnel. Escalating property prices is possibly the largest strain on resources of entrepreneurs while planning new project launches and therefore close interaction with entrepreneurs in understanding their needs and facilitating compact, efficient and only necessitated equipments to help them meet their objectives is the way forward in planning future projects.