In a conversation with TheSMEIndia, CoreB Group’s Jay K Mulchandani talks about the disruption on account of Covid-19 pandemic, their plans to grow and how they intend to leverage finance. Edited Excerpts:
Q. How’s the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in your industry & business?
The impact of the pandemic has changed the landscape of the industry in a lot many ways, both positive and negative. But the good part is that it has also pushed companies to rethink processes and products in a way like never before. We at CoreB Group have decided to extend complete support to the government of India’s ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative to help homegrown businesses and thus, all equipment and raw materials will be procured from companies ‘Made in India’ on priority.”
I believe that our most significant opportunities are found in times of greatest challenge. We have capitalized on the situation in a strategic manner to make more profits than ever, taking the projected turnover of CoreB Group to 100 crores in the current financial year and have laid the foundation of India’s largest trailer production facility ‘CoreB Gram’. The idea is to build a township where employees of all levels will be given accommodation and access to basic facilities for the wellbeing of the team.
Q. Where’s the major demand coming from?
The major demand is coming from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh but our vision is to expedite operations in our new state of the art facility and be capable enough to manufacture at least 40 percent of the overall market size of India’s trailer and tipper industry.
Q. How do you implement digital and emerging technologies across your operations?
By the almighty’s grace, when the company started its operations it generated revenue owing to the USP of the products and by doing Core Business as the name itself suggests.
Having said that, we are cognizant about how we can enhance our digital presence to be recognized as a thought leader in the Industry and effectively communicate with our stakeholders and potential customers. We have outlined a clear B2B Marketing strategy and have invested funds into making our SEO and Social Media game better. The way I see it, building a brand image in digital media means saving time and resources while you also drive more traffic and increase exposure to your potential clients in the process.
Q. Fundraising plans? How difficult is it to access finance?
We are planning to raise funds from Hindalco and the same is under process. I would like to emphasize that raising funds has not been a big challenge because we have invested carefully in R&D and that in turn clears a lot of obstacles since investors are always keen to back an innovative and futuristic range of products.
Q. What’s the growth plan ahead in coming months?
We are currently working on building an ecosystem called ‘Lifetime Transport Support Solutions’ aimed at integrating all kinds of transport solutions under one roof. The idea is to have a one-stop point where the client comes with their ID proofs and secures a pool of transport services for a lifetime. This includes aspects like truck finance, driver allocation, sales and service, spare parts etc.
Additionally, the Government has recently taken strict measures to curb down overloading and has also commissioned humongous projects in the area of infrastructure which has in turn increased the demand for trucks and trailers. This gives us an opportunity to step in and invest more on R&D to become the most trusted brand in the trailer production market, globally.”
