Online Printing and Design Business: Painting on Anything

"Everyone is gifted - but some people never open their package"

Be it hunting a unique gift for that special person, a token of recognition for your employees to celebrate their performance, expressing your support for a cause, or just a wearing a couple of lines on your t-shirt to show your attitude, it proves more complex than solving a Rubik's cube.

Well, not anymore. At Myntra they are here to simplify this cumbersome task into a couple of easy steps. Founded in July 2006, Myntra happens to be the brain wave of 6 guys from IIT/IIM background. It's an online platform where one can create or buy customized and personalized merchandize such as t-shirts, mugs, calendars, watches, notepads, and so on.

Mr. Mukesh Bansal, founder Myntra prints got the idea of printing just about anything on T-shirt, a coffee mug, a block of wood, glass or even a wall while he was working in US. After completing his B Tech in computer science from IIT Kanpur, he worked with a number of ocmpanies in the Silicon Valley before returning to India in 2006. Along with former IIT batchmates Ashutosh Lawania and Vineet Saxena, he began to think on customisation and personalisation in the design space as areas that would allow for self-expression for everyone, from individuals to corporates.

Initial investments were made by Bansal from the money that he saved while working in US for six years along with his partners. The investment made by IDG Ventures, NEA & Accel Partners helped Myntra to increase its employee strength which was not an easy task as attrition levels were pretty high at that point.

The bulk of Myntra’s business — around 65%—comes from corporate clients like ABB, Infosys, Verizon and Yahoo. A key challenge initially was to convince large corporates that Myntra’s offerings could take corporate gifting to a new level, something the small unorganised providers couldn’t possibly provide.

Their philosophy is to retain their clients and get repeat business. With over 400 customers now, the company has ensured that it has a dominant position in its market. Creating concepts into design takes a lot of creativity and efforts to execute. This has meant building a team of designers who work from the company’s Bangalore office housed in a three-storey building. Myntra has developed technology to put designs even on surfaces like wall tiles and concrete.

Flush with investments and high margins the company is on track to hit the million dollar revenue mark by this year end. Next year, the company aims to grow threefold to $3 million. The employees will also grow to about 150 in a couple of years. Myntra has tied up with Reebok and Nike for IPL customised T-shirts and is in talks with a retailer to set up physical stores to address the consumer segment.

They plan to open 15 stores by the year end. They are now giving a push to the B2C business. Along the way, they have got calls from people who want them to re-design a car or create a James Bond sports vehicle. Another one called to customise his house from the outside. A company wanted them to create a painting on a large canvas. Howver, more and more people now know what exactly they do, and the good part is, they know they can deliver as well.

For more details check out: Myntra.com
Photo Courtesy: Anirban Ghosh, Economic Times.

Classic Stripes: Taking Auto Styling to the next Level.

GRAPHICS and decorations on vehicles was once a business pursued by the small-time garage operator catering to a local clientele. Even abroad, there were only a few companies in this business, and in India, virtually none. Two decades ago, not many would have seen sense in the need for an organised business to put stripes and designs on automobiles. But Kishore Musale has not only taken that business mainstream, he has also made a number of car and bike manufactures factor in exterior adornment as part of their design.

So, it was a milestone for Classic Stripes, which Mr Musale founded in a 120-sq-ft room outside Mumbai in 1987, to have won an order from Tata Motors to provide body-side graphics to the Rs 1 lakh car. The company already serves a range of Tata vehicles in addition to global giants like Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Toyota and Indian companies, including Bajaj and Mahindra & Mahindra.

CLASSIC STRIPES PVT. LTD. (CSPL) was established in 1987. The Company is in the business of producing decals which are used in the 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler industry. With ISO-9001 certification and a staff strength of over 300 people, CSPL has propelled its brand to the forefront of Graphic and Printing Industry. The Company has a production capacity to produce over 6 million motorbike decals per annum and is the largest manufacturer of 2-wheeler Graphic worldwide. The Company also produces Doming Labels and has a production capacity to produce over 2,00,000 Doming Labels per Shift. The Company has also invested in the state-of-the-art in-house design studio which caters to the requirement of the industry and as per customer’s design requirement.

Classic Stripes Pvt. Ltd. for the second consecutive year has featured in the survey conducted by the Grow Talent Company in partnership with Economic Times as the “Great Places to Work” we were rated 5th in 2007. . This is a tribute to our Core Competence which is our “People”.

Mr Musale’s business goals are ambitious and global. While selling to the local market and retail buyers would have been easier, Mr Musale, from the beginning, wanted to have original equipment manufacturers as his clients. He particularly wanted to target Japanese vehicle makers, which had the best volumes to offer, but insisted on the highest quality possible.

Classic Stripes had to struggle for business for four years after its birth. In the first year, it made only 20,000 units. But Mr Musale believed the automobile industry in India was set to explode and his time would come. He was amply rewarded when the country’s economic growth, technology advances and a growing population began to translate into a rapid growth initially for two-wheelers and later for cars.

With experience serving tough Japanese clients, Classic was quite ready to meet the new domestic demand. There has been no looking back since and today, the company has developed the capacity to produce 10 million units of graphics a year. It employs 600 people and has been ranked among the 25 best places to work in the country by Businessworld magazine.

“OEMs have always been our main focus. But, now we are concentrating on after-market graphics for cars, graphics with original designs through their showroom,” says Mr Musale. Mr Musale can now afford to take more time off to spend with family or to listen to Led Zeppelin’s songs. But he is already chalking out global expansion plans for Classic and two sister companies. “We are also looking at supplying signages like the big ones you see at petrol stations, shopping malls in India and abroad,” he says.

Article Resources:
The Economic Times.
Classic Stripes