UNRELENTING CUSTOMER RELEVANCE SINCE 1875.
Mr. Chintan Sheth, 5th generation timber supplier to 360- degree packaging solution provider, shares his exciting story, to becoming a scion of the packaging industry in India.
Born to a business family, Chintan Dipak Sheth is the 5th generation entrepreneur successfully managing his ancestral (since 1875) business of timber and plywood, M/s Maganlal Manilal Sheth.
Back in time, they were not only the sole distributors of timber, a British owned firm – Sitapur Plywood
Manufacturers Ltd. in Uttar Pradesh manufactured flush doors (a new concept then) and would supply timber to almost all the institutes and residential bungalows of Ahmedabad.
The need to innovate and stay relevant was acknowledged by his grandfather Mr. Dashrathlal Chinubhai Sheth, in the early ’50s as they launched PRAVIN TIMBER WORKS –manufacturing and supplying wooden boxes to textile mills of Ahmedabad. Within no time, all the textile mills of Ahmedabad became their esteemed clients. However, challenges continued to surface, the late ’70s and early ’80s witnessed the closure of the textile mills, and their business was severely hit. During their difficult time, his father developed business with the engineering industry under ‘Chaitanya Industries’.
It was upon completion of his post-graduation and MBA, Chintan joined the family business in late 1990. With the hope and support of his father and grandfather, to carry forward the legacy of 125 years and achieve new heights. In order to expand their retail business, Chintan thought of adding resellers.
As for timber is a luxury item, with high sales tax, the market wanted to purchase in cash without an invoice. This was beyond our policy, and we failed to generate a wholesale market for our products. Unrelentingly, he also managed the wooden box manufacturing unit, Chaitanya Industries learning about the entire supply chain, demand and product cycle of our multiple units.
When the going gets tough, the tough get Going, staying true to this adage, and being customer-centric
businessman, Chintan focused on existing customers to understand what their problems were and started finding solutions for them. He also paid close interest to the expanding import market and products. Thereafter, there was no looking back, from supplying wooden boxes for export, new product development, and newer market territories. With the increase in customer base, their business flourished and they acquired a large land and erected a state-of-art facility in Sanand GIDC in the year 2016.
Chitan shares, ‘That in the business of wooden packaging, our major competitors were Kachhi Patels (Patels from Kutch), they had the advantage of big joint families led by males, whereas I had to employ manpower, hence our overheads were high compared to them and maintaining competency in the cost factor, was very difficult. In fact, this made me identify our niche and we began targeting customers
who required customization of boxes’.
Today, they are masters of customized packaging required for heavy-duty machines as well as specialized packaging for exports. Their team of experts identifies the requirement, designs the box,
manufactures and transports the clients’ machines in their outer boxes.
The success of any business is not only its business policy. Customer-centric attitude and adopting change with the passage of time, genuinely giving back to the employees are some of the real-time advice, Chintan advocates. He expresses, ‘We treat our employees as our family members, and many generations work with us from my grandfathers to their grandfathers’.
To be relevant, they are always open and accept the changes in the industry, recently in accordance with the Goverments mandate to save trees, they developed heavy duty paper corrugated boxes to replace the wooden boxes in many cases. Chintan states, ‘ We convert every requirement of our customer into business opportunity.’
Our USP is identifying the requirement, designing, manufacturing, supplying and packing the boxes within the stipulated time frame as time is very crucial for our customers. It takes a few months to manufacture a machine but once it is ready it has to be packed and shipped as soon as possible, so we are always on our toes and give them timely services.
Currently, Chintan is the scion of a unique one-stop solution provider for packaging needs. They now manufacture wooden packaging and supply a varied range of Dunnage bags, Rust preventives, Stretch films, Pet Straps, Cord Straps, Corrugated Boxes and Corners, Vaccumised packaging. He truly lives by
the punchline ‘Do it with passion or not at all.’
Quoting Mark Zuckerberg, Chintan concludes, “ Building a mission and building a business go hand-in-hand.” Our Mission 2030 is to become the holistic packaging partner that provides 360-degree packaging solutions round the clock.
