Our Family Started A $936K/Year Business Selling Home & Kitchenware Products [Mumbai]
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I and my husband Mr. Chirag Visaria are the founder and director of the brand PDD Falcon. I am an IT professional, turned into a woman entrepreneur leading the family legacy and aspiring to manifest my expertise in the 35-year-old family business.
We realized that there is a huge market for premium quality stainless steel storage and drinkware range. Our dreams got wings after our appearance on the popular TV show Shark Tank India. It then and now that we have achieved the milestone of serving more than 5 million customers across 18000 pin codes with more than 300 products via offline model with 40 distributors in major cities of India who reach more than 5000 dealer points and through online major selling portals like Amazon, Big basket, Firstcry, Myntra and many more.
These products are manufactured at PDD Falcon's high-end state-of-the-art factory in Mumbai, spread across 50000 sq. ft. All the products are available in almost all major cities with more than 5000+ dealer networks offline and online marketplaces like First cry, Big basket, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Lime Road, Meesho, Shoppe, Shopclues.
The brand began with a small t.o. of 10 l in the first year. But today we stand at a forecast of 12 cr and above for f.y. 2022-23 with the company valued at 25Cr. It’s purely due to the support of our channel partners. Before the closing of this financial year, we shall expand our offline network to 60 distributors reaching out to more than 8000 dealers. More sales are expected to come from export avenues.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I am an IT engineer with a master's in Marketing. I had an IT industry work-ex however, after my marriage My father-in-law inducted and encouraged me to join the 35-year-old family business of stainless steel component manufacturing. Since. 2012 I have been associated with the family business with my Husband. In 2016 my father-in-law passed away in cardiac arrest, it was then on this first death anniversary in 2017 that we decided to make a brand named Falcon to give a tribute to him and his learning. As it was his last wish. Initially, we weren’t sure about whether we would be able to make it large, but a great customer review encouraged us to be bigger and better.
Stainless steel is a healthy and safe alternative to plastic storage, drinkware, and kitchenware. This is a commonly known fact, but when you go to find out those alternatives, you don't get the benefits of plasticware in stainless steel viz. Leak-proof, modern and attractive, and the options available were unreliable.
many social pressures pile up that may lead to losing our focus on our tasks. As a woman entrepreneur, one needs to take it and walk the way.
This made us wonder why there is no reliable and customer-centric Stainless steel kitchen storage brand? This gave us the idea for - Pdd Falcon.
I and Chirag launched PDD Falcon in 2017 under the parent company Prazision Deep Draw Pvt. Ltd. (formerly PRECISION DEEP DRAW, Since 1985) and endeavors to make it a leading Stainless Home and Kitchenware brand in the country. The motive was also to pay a tribute - to their father's last wish, whose dream was to have a brand of our own.
The parent company PDD has been growing at 12-15% annually, whereas the brand has grown 220% over the last five years. Sneha is an ambitious and dynamic lady who left her gleaming corporate exposure and did not shy away from visiting narrow and congested roads to meet new suppliers and talk to the vendors and dye-makers in a highly male-dominated unorganized industry.
A mother herself, Sneha envisions her product R&D for women all across who, just like her, want the best for their families. Her deep understanding of the consumer base has led her to design award-winning products that have instant popularity in the market.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
I (Sneha) started to design and manufacture double-wall color-coated stainless steel airtight containers and drinkware products in 2017. The product designing came to me from my problems as a Mother. When I used to take my 2-year-old to the garden I always used to carry makhana or fruits along. The steel container then was very inferior in quality and didn't serve my purpose. Thus we made tough airtight containers and a lunch box series.
Later, I was looking for a safe alternative for the transition of my son from bottle to sipper. What I found are only costly Chinese products that were very difficult to clean and bulky. Thus we designed the first-ever stainless steel sipper straw glass with attractive colors, a cleaning brush, and leak-proof lids. It instantly became a hit and we got huge consumer feedback. The more we heard about the consumer the better we evolved as a brand every passing day.
Because we had our setup, we could easily manufacture the products; but building the network was a task. What helped us in this is many experiments. All the cost initially was through parent company funding. But we went slow and that's the reason we had an early break-even.
The customer gave us a problem and we served it with a product. In no time we were a range of more than 300 + stainless steel products in a range of lunchboxes, drinkware, steel baby bottles, veg chopper, and kitchen storage containers.
Each product is made to solve customer problems. We have our ears out. PddFalcon is the synergy of the goodness of stainless steel with modern age customer demand.
In a short time, we have achieved:
- 300+ stainless steel products.
- 500000+ happy customers.
- Reached more than 17,500 pin codes.
- 400 + team members encashing 35+ years of expertise in stainless steel kitchenware manufacturing.
What gave us a breakthrough is:
A chance to pitch our ideas and business on the popular reality show, “Shark Tank India- Season 1” which was aired on Sony TV and Sony Liv App on the 27th of Jan 2022, where we were received enthusiastically.
Our stellar business pitch received a fabulous response, even though the funding did not finally take place. Yet, the show received 1.5 million views on YouTube and 75k+ views on Instagram, making the brand recognizable across households in India.
The science:
All that shines is not good steel!
- S.S. 304 (18/8) and S.S. 204 (CU) are the only Internationally acclaimed stainless steel food grade brands. We at Pdd Falcon use only food-safe certified, tested, and verified stainless steel grades.
- Thus, 1/100000 Pdd Falcon steel products crack or rust.
- The process differentiation we create assures only the perfect fitment and best quality reaches your (customers) hands.
- Each product goes through a 5-level Standard Quality check parameter.
- The steel is hand polished not once but twice or in some cases even thrice. When we say mirror polish we mean it. So our products stand apart in the cluster.
- Each product is designed thinking from the customer's point of view. To solve a problem that the existing offerings do not cater to. Simple innovation using the goodness of steel.
Currently, we won design copyrights for most of our designs.
Describe the process of launching the business.
About the Parent company
Prazision deep draw Pvt LTD, Mumbai is a leading stainless steel manufacturing company that has been in operation since 1985, serving top leading home appliances brands (as OEMs) like Panasonic, Havells, Philips, Sujata, Milton, Borosil to name a few.
In the huge capital intensive, high entry barriers, and highly unorganized industry, very few Stainless steel kitchenware manufacturers have been able to create a brand image for everyday used kitchenware and homeware products. We at Pdd are pioneers and market leaders for Mixer grinder jar components.
With the highest level of latest automation, a team of 500+ industry experts, superior control of inputs, and an Infrastructure setup spread over 45000 sq. ft. Pdd is the name you can count on for a one-stop-shop solution for any stainless steel kitchenware needs.
Group Pddz is Rohs compliant, Sgs Audited, duns and Bradstreet registered, and highly compliant as per International standards.
About the brand
PddFalcon is a flagship brand of Pddz started in 2017 to give tribute to our founder (my father-in-law) as it was his last wish.
We started by launching just one model of double-wall tiffin with attractive color options, which customers highly appreciated for its quality and design. It's then and it's now that we are a brand with more than 300+ products in the lunchbox, drinkware, veg choppers, and kitchen storage category.
Each product is made to solve customer problems. We have our ears out. PddFalcon is the synergy of the goodness of stainless steel with modern age customer demand.
This is value-added by:
- Use of superior Raw material grade S.s. 204 CU steel coil. This grade has 50 percent more copper than ordinary steel and thus has better antibacterial properties and superior corrosion resistance.
- Dual mirror polish. No chemical coatings/platings. Purely hand-polished TWICE. Thus each product stands apart.
- 5 levels of quality check. Each product goes through strict QC standards and thus we provide a guarantee of our steel quality.
- Simple, lightweight, airtight, leakproof, sturdy, and long-lasting. Each product aims to make life easier for its customers since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We have brought a lot of videos and actual visualization. We have one module where we customize the sipper glass and bottles with names or anything which customers want, adding such customization provision has helped in increasing online sales.
PDD Falcon also provides a service where customers can physically do a video call and choose or select the kind of product variations they want.
In terms of physical presence, we are already serving 17,500 pin codes and we have already served 500,000+ customers. With 80 percent of current sales coming from offline models, the company currently has a network of 50 distributors in India, including tier I and tier II cities to cater to the mass market with each distributor serving around 5000 stores which will soon reach 8000 dealers.
PDD Falcon expects to close this financial year with a turnover of Rs 50 million, and in the last four years, the brand has grown 222%. In the coming years, we are forecasting sales of around Rs 120 million.
With an eye on increasing demand, the company is adding another 10,000 sq ft space for packaging at its Mumbai facility in the next six months. Its current facility is spread over 50,000 square feet where we house end-to-end solutions for manufacturing over 300 products in its portfolio.
We aim to grow a Rs 1 billion brand in the next 5 years.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Mistakes we made:
- Lack of awareness about the range
- Supply chain and inventory setup must be prehand decided.
- Missed orders, inventory control
- Our packing and branding were not communicating to customers and telling them why choose us?
What helped us overcome these mistakes:
- Make clear realistic goals
- Work on your timeline in a disciplined manner
- Outsource and divide tasks. I divide each bigger task into micro tasks and delegate them to respective team members and I audit over the phone call. I make sure the work is going on even when I am not around
- Taking care of myself like having my timely dinner, sufficient sleep, working out, and also taking care of my mental health is the most important factor.
- Kids also look up to you, your discipline makes them better human beings. You are giving the best version of yourself to everyone.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
- Gofrugal- It's an inventory management software. We make more than 300 products which have more than 2000 Bill of materials being sourced from multiple vendors and assembled and dispatched. Inventory management is an imp. Role when you are making and selling both together. It helps handle ur cycle time as ur bringing the candle from both ends. Gofrugal is a simple and comprehensive inventory management software that gives amazing JIT reports for stock status and sales analysis.
- Tally - The Indian accounting system cannot be managed better than Tally. From billing to taxation to multiple compliance Tally holds it all in the best manner possible to calculate and account for complex systems. With GSt coming in there are many statutory filings and reporting- Tally helps to make it a click away. There is much comprehensive software available in the market but these have easy usage and thus getting a manager for these is easy and cost-effective.
- Vinculum – It helps centralize multiple online order processing by unifying inventory and reports over various online portals.
Our website is built on Shopify but we haven’t been able to harness the best of it yet. Since our focus was more on offline model development we haven’t yet explored much in this arena, But surely will add these in this coming year.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Good To Great by Jim Collins has been an influential book for me.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
My simple pointers for making a mark in the workplace (family-owned businesses) for women are:
Be consistent - Work-life balance is highly important, it is more important when the business is of your in-laws. Many social pressures pile up that may lead to losing our focus on our tasks. As a woman entrepreneur, one needs to take it and walk the way.
Build your credibility - Though being educated or experienced, building credibility asks for time and events. The moment you are consistent, you get small events in your daily work life where you can prove your excellence and win over your peers. Such a collection of events make you hold positions and roles which then become your portfolio. You are answerable to your team.
Climb the ladder - When you're in a family-owned business, you need to know it all. The best way to do that is to take all roles, do it, learn it, and move ahead. This way you can empathize with the others in the role and make sure how the best can be gotten from the team.
Don't take differences to bed - It's very likely to have differences of opinion at work between your family members, especially your spouse. Sometimes, both of us hold such strong opinions about a problem that it leads to serious arguments and fights. If you drag this back home, it's going to be a hell of a life. The best way is to leave these issues behind and not let them affect our family. It takes a lot of time to draw these lines and get mature about it, but with time, one evolves.
to Focus on the End Goal - My husband spends time setting up life goals and work goals. These are short-term as well as long-term. We know each other's skills well and divide tasks likewise. We draw road maps and timelines to achieve them and sit over them again to audit what we did and how we can do it better next time.
Ask for help - My mother-in-law is my biggest strength. She takes care of everything on my behalf (house, kids, kitchen). She is highly understanding and encourages me to give the best of myself. Without her support, I don't think I would have achieved what we have currently. To get this balance we are open to communication and we don’t have grievances against each other and try to sort it out even when we have differences. I understand that my role in my house and kids are equally important. Thus, I schedule my week in such a manner that I spend a good time with my family.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are currently looking to hire a purchase manager.
Where can we go to learn more?
- Business Mint (moreover I daily read the newspaper Economic times and its supplements. Goes a long way to keep me up to date on the latest trends in business)
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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