Page 25 - ITLN JAN-FEB 2022 for Magzter
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we started hiring our sales team for the   to go and negotiate rates and figure   Tell me about your previous and
        first time in three years.          out what the current rate in the market   current financial year in terms of
           We had opened up 17 cities by    is because the cold chain industry is   revenue, profit, margins, business and
        September 2020. And post that we had   heavily affected by seasonality.   growth?
        put a stop to it because the intent was to   We took over the complete primary   Growth has been good for us in 2021.
        say our model is scalable. We will get to   movement and storage across India.   For example, the growth that we had
        at least 30 to 35 cities by the end of 2022.   His team got one single point of contact   registered from November 2020 to May
                                            to manage all their primary movement   2021, double that growth we were able to
        Have you been equally cautious while   and storage. My team also optimized the   register just in one month between June
        building your team?                 cost of storing between different cities,   and July 2021. We are not the size of the
        Our hiring philosophy has been fairly   ensuring that you are running intercity in   largest player around. But if we continue
        simple: knowledge and expertise is   an optimized fashion. The conversations   on this growth path, we will get there in
        one part of it, but we try and prioritize   that my team has now with him is more   the matter of the next 12 months.
        the intent and motivation. Since the   around how to tackle the B2B segment
        focus was on reliability, sustainability   or  direct to consumer deliveries.   What we could expect from AbleCold
        and scalability, the strategy has been                                 soon in terms of expansion,
        extremely successful. The intent and   As a cold chain company offering   technology, new clients and growth?
        motivation for any early-stage startup   reliable quality operations, how do   You can expect AbleCold to be India's
        are far more important than knowledge   you make sure that the temperature is   largest network of reliable integrated
        and expertise.                      maintained throughout?             cold chain solutions where big brands,
                                            For AbleCold, the bigger thing is not   small brands and distributors can come.
        Who are your clients? Which are the   monitoring whether the temperature   Hopefully, we get to that stage where
        verticals you focus on?             is correct or not, but monitoring the   you see a small AbleCold mark on the
        Our clients are located across India   inputs, which ensure that the operations   ice cream you buy saying that it has
        and their movements are also        run in a way that a temperature breach   gone through the right temperature
        happening everywhere. I can divide   will not happen.                  across the supply chain. 
        the overall market into three broad   For example, a temperature breach
        product segment categories, fruits   happens at cold storage. That's
        and vegetables, pharmaceuticals, and   output and there's nothing
        processed foods. The processed food   I can do about it. But
        segment is where we have focused    our focus is more
        on building the business in the initial   on controlling, for
        part of the business, while fruits and   example, the cold
        vegetables and pharmaceuticals were in   room door opening.
        our plan always.                    That is an input,
                                            which is what we
        How do you help your clients solve   monitor and that
        problems? Give me at least one case   is the place where
        study?                              the reliability in
        One of our clients import the frozen   operation starts
        seafood to Mumbai and distribute it   coming.
        across 15 to 20 cities in India. The
        product needs to be stored in all of these
        cities and then further sales happen.
           Earlier, for 30 percent of his volume,
        goes with one organized player but
        unorganized segment handles the
        remaining. Dealing with so many
        players across different geographies
        is a challenge. Second, there are no
        standardized operations, some will     Abhay Kothari
        charge on a pallet basis, some will             Founder
        charge on per kg basis, some will       AbleCold Logistics
        charge on per cubic feet basis at
        storage. The third issue was in terms
        of the primary movement, say from
        Mumbai to Calcutta. Every single time a
        vehicle is required, his team would have


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        www.itln.in                                                                             January - February 2022
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