FLOURISHING OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD

Business is growing, yet no laid-back attitude. Vikas Mahante’s son, Pratik wanted to restart in a clean state, moving away from all the legacy of liabilities. With an established customer base and the capability to offer newer products to the same customers, Pratik, the third generation entrepreneur, sees flourishing growth opportunities in the days ahead. However, he does not discount any of the challenges that an average business establishment usually faces from time to time.

Vitthal Mahante, after working for three decades at Tata Steel, founded the company in 1982 with his two sons Vikas and Hemant. The seed capital of ₹20,000 was spent on buying machinery and acquiring raw materials to execute the first order placed by Tata Steel. After working for many years in one of India’s most respected business groups, the Mahante patriarch thought of enabling his sons to be employers rather than being employees for a meagre salary. The patriarch believed in the next generation enablement through an independent business. “He was a great visionary,” says Pratik recalling the family history. Pratik’s father Vikas Mahante also inherited the good qualities from his father which he passed on to his son also. He used to think much above his educational qualification, Pratik points out. Grandmother, Ratnaprabha Mahante also stood as an inspiration to the next generation. She is one of the partners of the company. The patriarch, Vitthal Mahante, expired in 2008 and Vikas’ elder brother Hemant, also a business partner, in 2015. With a meagre daily earning of ₹4, Vitthal Mahante could pull a small capital to ensure that his sons were placed in business without being at the mercy of others. As he pondered over making his sons enter a business his close observation caught his attention of a segment called the packing clips, a segment which many entrepreneurs couldn’t find as a business proposition. Packing clips are used for packaging and bundling heavy steel items and coils. The product has huge demand from large steelmakers, Vitthal Mahante knew. Then he decided to position his two sons to take the task of starting a company. He had wide contacts within Tata Steel, which came as good support to his sons. They bought the necessary machines to start the production of packing seals from a very small factory of the size of 150 sq ft. By the time, the two Mahante brothers were introduced to senior management personnel at Tata Steel, which opened them an opportunity to enter the Tatas for procurement of orders in the early days. That also enabled them to procure small orders initially. As the revenue began to flow in and products began to receive good acceptance from India’s largest private steelmaker, by 1984 the Mahantes began to approach other steel companies. Vikas Mahante, an excellent communicator, is known for his vision and safe business strategy. The process of expansion was systematic and consistent in response to the call of the market. He bought one unit in Malad and subsequently two units in Kandivali. New units with additions of machines enabled the company to expand the product range. Once reached a sustainable level of growth, he hired talents for marketing all the products developed by the company. As the business grew, the size of the factory and office also grew. The company appointed managers and executives to support business growth. A product accepted by Tata does not need any other quality confirmation, other steel markers have been adequately convinced about it. “Tata Steel’s acceptance of our product was a kind of quality certification then. The other steelmakers did not have any doubt about our product quality and industry standard. That had opened new ways for business growth,” Pratik remembers the group’s nearly four-decades-old history. All the big steel companies of the early 90s, which include Graham Firth, Jindal, Zenith Birla, etc. were the customers of Siddhi Vinayak, he says. Tata Steel has been its customers since the beginning. Other steel giants like ArcelorMittal, SAIL, JSW Steel, Viraj Profiles, Mukand also have been their customers. After a consolidation of the domestic market, Pratik and his brothers aim to find a footprint in the global market. The calendar 2020 was a lost year for every business in the world. Naturally, that took a year off from the calendar of Siddhi Vinayak’s business plans. “But we have no regret since we are confident of starting our exports soon. We continue to see the right opportunities for us. Our products have already reached the world market through foreign companies with a representative office in India. Now we are planning to do it directly,” Pratik asserts. The admirable growth in business made Vikas Mahante and his brother think of expanding the base of products and adding production capacities. Along with the packing seals, the company started manufacturing identification metal labels, which are also used by steel companies. identification metal labels were developed by the company itself. The wide range of products helped the company expand the client base also. Every company required packing seals in different sizes and different colours. “According to the product specification of a company, we developed products and served them with what they desired,” he avers. In 2012, the company moved all its units from Malad and Kandivali into a single location in Vasai, to bring all operations under one roof. The manufacturing units are equipped with well-integrated and sophisticated manufacturing technologies. “Bringing all operations under one roof was one of my priorities,” Pratik recalls. In every step of expansion and as and when the
working capital requirement came up, Union Bank of India stood with us. “We have been maintaining an excellent relationship with Union Bank, be it at branch level or from headquarters. We owe greatly to them for our business success,” Pratik complements the public sector bank. In the pandemic days, the bank called up the company management and promised all the support, reassuring its continued assistance, he adds. “From here also we will continue our expansion programme. The next two years are very crucial. We will clean our slate of tax legacies and transform the organization to build a corporate model,” Pratik avers with optimism and expectation of better business opportunities in the rapidly changing India. The amalgamation of manufacturing units eliminated the problems of coordination. The Vasai unit currently manufactures 20 products, which are used by every steel company across India. The company has 60 employees. The company has competitors for all its 20 products. But the credibility of admirable safer-sales services, rates, reliability and delivery give Siddhi Vinayak an edge over others. There are MNCs also in the same market as the company’s products. Still, the company is not upset, as Pratik says, satisfied customers will never go elsewhere. Often more than the rate, customers will ask what kind of services and reliability the seller would offer over what the peers offer. Not for any other reason, the giants like Tata Steel, SAIL and ArcelorMittal continue to buy packing seals from Siddhi Vinayak, he adds.