Tushar Jain, Founder & Managing Director of High Spirit Commercial Ventures Pvt Ltd (HSCVPL) and his father Mulchand Jain, started selling bags from Mumbai’s streets in the early 90’s to later build up their own company. Today, the company has offices in 10 major cities in India and has a distribution network of 10,000 points of sale spread across the country. The company announced plans to set up two bag manufacturing facilities in Bihar and Gujarat or Maharashtra with investment of ₹35 crore. HSCVPL has registered revenues of Rs. 250 crores in the FY ended in March 2018.
Traworld- premium luggage brand for the elite traveller from the house of HSCVPL has recently roped in Sonam Kapoor Ahuja as the brand ambassador. The brand caters to the urban elite consumers for whom travel is a way of life and a luggage bag is more than just a bag.
Today HSCVPL is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of bags which has on- board brands like Priority, Humpty Dumty, Hashtag and Traworld. It is also the sole licencee to manufacture cartoon bags.
In an exclusive interaction with Startup Terminal; Tushar Jain, Managing Director & Founder of High Spirit Commercial Ventures Pvt Ltd (HSCVPL) shares more insights about his entrepreneurial journey and future plans.
Excerpts:
ST: How has been the journey of HSCVPL and its various brands so far?
Tushar Jain: The company was started in 2012, whereas the promoters of the company have more than 16 years of experience in manufacturing and retailing of bags. The company has set up factory and warehouse facility in Bhiwandi near Mumbai for manufacturing of backpack bags.
High Spirit Commercial Ventures is the largest player in the backpack space the company had sold 7 million bags last year. We sell backpacks bags under three brands like Priority, Humpty Dumpty and Hashtag. Hashtag brand name is very unique and positioned towards backpacks for youth. Our revenues for the last year was at Rs. 250 crore and is expected to grow at 30% for the next three to four years.
ST: How has HSCVPL been able to change the retail/manufacturing industry landscape in India?
Tushar Jain: We are the fourth largest bags brand in the country. High Spirit Commercial Ventures has emerged as a leader in backpack space in the price range of Rs. 399 to Rs. 799.
The current size of the Indian bag packers and luggage bags market is at Rs. 20,000 crores, whereas China’s market is more than Rs. 1,00,000 crores for domestic market and Rs. 2,00,000 crores for export market, there is long way to go for India to reach the level of Chinese market, this also shows that the penetration level is very low in India and is expected to increase substantially in the years to come.
Additionally, the introduction of GST has also eased the business playfield for the organised players in the segment to reach out to unchartered territories it had not ventured before. Our current turnover stands at Rs. 250 crores for the FY18 and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 30% in next three years. Our offices are spread across all major cities with having presence at more than 3,500 MBOs across the country. We certainly would like to become leading luggage bags manufacturing company in the country with a turnover of Rs. 1,000 crores within 5 years.
ST: What is HSCVPL’s strategy towards online retailing?
Tushar Jain: We believe in today’s day and age online retailing has a huge potential. With our brands idea of making the brands more relevant to customer’s and be their lifestyle accessory it is important for us to bring the styles to their shopping disposal.
We are currently retailing Traworld across leading retail stores in the country and is also available through general trade through large distribution network of 3500 MBO’s spread across India. Apart from that the brand is also retailed online through Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, Paytm Mall, Shopclues, Indiamart and others.
ST: How big is the team strength of HSCVPL at present? Do you plan to hire in the next year?
Tushar Jain: We currently have 500 people on our pay rolls and we hire another 500 people on job work basis. Currently we are focusing on strengthening our marketing team and will be adding senior resources to empower our leadership team.
ST: How was the market trend in 2018?
Tushar Jain: Luggage is no longer viewed as a utility item but it is now a lifestyle accessory which is more of a style quotient. To cater to this mobile sector who are mostly on a move either for holiday or for business or even both the various brands are coming up with innovative offerings for their customers and offer products that resonates with their customer’s personality.
There are several factors pushing the luggage industry towards stupendous growth. The foremost amongst them being the outbound travel for both business and leisure. Since, these luggage bags have become lifestyle accessory than just mere utility, it has resulted in increased consumption to one person owning several bags than just few bags being used by an entire household.
The current market size of the bag industry stands at 20,000 crore and has been growing at 17 to 19%, where as we at High Spirit Commercial Ventures are growing at 30%.
