Success Story : Born in a middle class family, Subhashish Chakraborty’s life journey is no less than an inspirational story. He was interested in studying science. To continue his studies in science, he did small jobs. He did hard penance to maintain a balance between studies and job. The result of this penance was that he graduated from college with a gold medal in Chemistry. This Bengali Babu, who once faced financial difficulties, now has a company worth Rs 2,000 crore in his pocket. The company’s name is not only known in every corner of the country, but its flags are flying high in foreign countries as well. Subhashish’s story of determination gives the message that anything can be done with full hard work (penance).
If 100 people are asked to name just one courier company, DTDC will be the first name that will come to the tongue of 90 people. Subhashish Chakraborty is the founder of DTDC. Currently, he is the chairman and managing director of the company. You must have sent couriers through his courier company many times and DTDC must have delivered couriers to your home or office.
Never thought of it!
Now a question may arise in your mind that how did a person who got a gold medal in Chemistry go into the courier business? And if he did, then how did he build a company worth thousands of crores? The truth is that he himself did not know that he would do courier work. Perhaps he never even thought of it. In an interview, Subhashish Chakraborty himself said – “In those days it was clear that after graduating with good marks, one has to do a good job.” Let’s know the whole story.
Also read – He failed in 8th standard, built a bank worth 50,000 crores, made HDFC and ICICI sweat
Subhashish Chakraborty was born in a middle class family in Kolkata. He studied chemistry at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College. During his studies, he started working with a big insurance company Peerless. Peerless was doing well in Eastern India, but no one knew about it in South India. So, the company sent Subhashish to Bangalore in 1981 and asked him to set up Peerless’s insurance business there. He went there and worked in insurance for a few years. He had a desire to start his own business. He had knowledge of the insurance sector, but no interest in it. He knew about chemicals well, and was also very interested.
So, 6 years later in 1987, he bid goodbye to the insurance company and started a chemical distribution company. The chemical business could have worked, but it didn’t. The real reason behind it not working was the postal service. He had a lot of problems dealing with the courier company. Subhashish found that there was a huge gap between the postal service and the customers. From here the whole game changed. Subhashish broke ties with the chemical and started his own courier company named DTDC on 26 July 1990. For your information, let us tell you that the full name of DTDC is Desk to Desk Courier & Cargo.
Bank did not give loan, sold mother’s jewellery
After initially focusing on big cities, Subhashish Chakraborty soon realized that there was a greater demand for courier services in smaller cities. There was a greater need in Mysore, Mangalore, and Hubli as well as in small cities of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The business started in 1990 with an investment of Rs 20,000 was facing many problems. The bank refused to give loans because there was no venture capital. Subhashish kept a heavy heart and continued to run the business by selling his mother’s jewelry. But that too could run only for a few months. There was a financial crisis again.
In 1991, Subhashish came up with a mantra that changed the whole game. He started the franchise model. Areas were divided into zones. One regional branch started handling 30 franchises. Soon after, DTDC made its software and computer system available to the franchisees so that real-time tracking of orders could be done. This was a revolution that customers were feeling the need for for a long time. Now the courier sender could know where his package had reached and when it would reach the right hands. The franchise idea worked and things started running smoothly.
14,000 pin codes in range
This company, which started its business from South India, currently has access to 14,000 pin codes. The company, which provides delivery services to both retail customers and businesses, can pick up from your home and deliver anywhere. According to DTDC’s website, its network has 14,000 physical customer access points. 96 percent are from India. Apart from this, it has presence at the international level. There are 220 destinations in the world where DTDC’s services are available.
How the company grew
DTDC is growing continuously. The company has big clients, including Wipro, Infosys and Tata Group companies. By 2006, the company had 3700 franchisees and revenue of Rs 125 crore. At the same time, it received an investment of Rs 70 crore from Reliance Capital and it became a company worth Rs 180 crore. By 2010, the number of franchisees had reached 5000. At this time, the company’s sales reached Rs 450 crore. In 2013, DTDC bought 70 percent stake in Nikkos Logistics. In the same year, the company launched DotZot, which became India’s first delivery network for e-commerce companies. In 2015, an automatic logistics hub was built in Hyderabad.
Data from 2018 shows that the company is shipping more than 150 million packages every year and the number of its franchise partners has reached 10,700. Even though other companies also deliver couriers, DTDC still has a market share of about 15 percent. Currently, it is estimated that the company’s revenue is around Rs 2000 crore. Although no data related to this is publicly available, a few years ago a big media house published a news about its IPO. It was said in that news that the company is going to bring an IPO of Rs 3,000 crore. Let us tell you that the company has not brought its IPO yet.
Tags: Business empire, Success Story, Successful business leaders
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 21, 2024, 16:16 IST