We’ve looked at how hiring the right management team and picking the best technology talent can impact a start-up’s success. Logistics player Brring may have its focus in the right place early on.
Brring offers customised solutions for its clients, focussing significantly in the delivery of perishable commodities, and up to the last mile.
Abhishek Nehru, CEO, Brring, says, “Our blue-collar employees, our drivers, pickers, packers, delivery boys are on our company roll. We ensure that they get all the benefits that white-collar staff gets. Whether it’s PF… performance incentives or other benefits.”
Nehru believes employee loyalty will lead to higher productivity. However, as a last-mile logistics solutions provider to start-ups such as BigBasket and Grofers and established names such as Amazon and Fortis, inefficiencies at Brring’s end can translate to client businesses faring poorly on customer service.
Nehru says, “80 per cent of our vehicle fleet is owned by us, giving us a better control over the day-to-day operations. We’re also able to optimise costs by cross-utilising the vehicles in different operations during the day and night.”
Day after day, all that control may seem daunting, and yet, the devil remains squarely in the details.
“We don’t outsource anything. My business is capital-intensive and I need to be responsible about scaling up. We have tight SLAs and if I don’t have the right people I take a hit. We build everything in-house, and go slow but steady,” Nehru says.
Happily funded
Brring was set up to meet a specific gap; Nehru claims no supply chain player in India specialised in perishables. India had Snowman, ColdEx and ColdStar – names that operate in the cold-chain segment.
“They don’t focus on perishables or on last-mile delivery. I do intercity, last-mile, I’m also a middleman sometimes. Around 15-20 per cent of our business comes from non-perishables… no one else in India has our reach,” Nehru says.
Brring’s aims to grow its reach from 16 to 31 cities. It’s even aiming to efficiently source fruit, vegetables, and lentils from wholesalers.
People hailing from the North East are trained at the company’s training centre in Guwahati. This helps Brring create an ecosystem to operate efficiently.
Brring has earned ₹33 crore in revenue even as other heavily people-dependent start-ups have had to throw in the towel over the last couple of years.
However, in the two years Brring has operated independently of the nearly four-decade-old Sovika Group, it was well-funded by the latter for initial growth.