Chandigarh
22 September 2018
DIVYA AZAD
Pumpkart the Start Up which is now quite a well known brand in the online market space, was born in Chandigarh & received huge praise from none other than Google CEO Sunder Pichai, for its unique business model of selling water pumps online. The Chandigarh grown company then went from strength to strength and has also signed the iconic former Indian test cricketer & Wisden cricketer of the century Kapil Dev, as its Brand Ambassador, to endorse the company and its brand of water pumps ‘Panatech’.
Founder & CEO of Pumpkart K S Bhatia told PTI, “We will deal in not just water pumps for which we have been known traditionally. We will Initially cater to all Home and Kitchen Appliances / hardware and all Industrial Supply products and then gradually we will come up with the many other products . We will have a complete range of products such as RO, Mixer juicer and grinder and other Kitchen appliances in white labeled brands. We will promote in-house brands to bring the profitability in the company and with the help of the technology we will create a marketplace for all appliances, hardware and Industry supply products for some top brands and even non branded products .”
Adds Bhatia confidently, “The vision is to emerge as India’s Largest B2B company by leveraging technology .”
Though Pumpkart has established phenomenal brand recall & recognition when it comes to water pumps, its journey has been like a roller coaster ride & full of challenges. After receiving a pat on the back from Pichai, the start-up worked hard under the leadership of its dynamic & visionary Founder & CEO K S Bhatia, but there was a great struggle in store in Pumpkart’s endeavour, to establish itself in a new space — that of online selling of water pumps.
“The reason for the challenges & difficulties came as we were working only in one segment and the market share was low initially. Secondly , this involved huge cash burning in B2C in the business module. Another aspect was that we were not being able to find the right Investors for this segment. The major prevalent concern for the investor was that we were operative from a Tier 2 city and the business module comprised of only one segment products.” Said K S Bhatia, CEO & Founder Pumpkart.
Despite the bumpy ride Pumpkart did not give up. The Start Up experimented with many business models. Changing to a B2B module and subsequently focusing on establishing their in house brand, were some business initiatives taken. But luck turned in Pumpkart’s favour after Kapil Dev joined hands with the company. Now the growth of the company has picked up pace and it is planning to bring all Kitchen appliances initially in white label brands, to increase the product range. The products will be promoted Pan India by the help of technology and hence this will help in increasing the turnover of the company. Pumpkart was anyhow profitable last year and it targets to cross Rs 100 crores turnover by 2019-2020.
Pumpkart has been approached by many pump manufacturing companies in India as well as from China who are ready to give the exclusive rights for their products and brands. In response to that Pumpkart will cater to them by creating a different division for them as well, but will not leave its signature products — which are water pumps and specially industrial pumps, as these have given a huge customer base to the company.
“We have got recognition and visibility in the market through these.” Sums up Bhatia.
