Law of attraction and an Online box Store – Boxwala

By Anurag Adukia on October 23, 2015 23 Comments / 5722 views

Greetings Rodinhooders!!!

Law of attraction! Sounds familiar???

I was always taught to think positive about my work and keep talking about my vision to grow my company.

A terrific first hand experience that I had this past week…

Introduction

I’m Anurag Adukia and I run a company by the name of Jai Ambe Packaging, we are into the business of manufacturing of high quality corrugated and printed boxes. For over past four years we have been working for companies like Borosil, Jaipan, Anjali, GM Modular etc.

Recently we started to penetrate through the food space as there has been a lot of buzz in the delivery segment due to the sudden boom of delivery apps. In the food sector we have clients like Rajdhani Thali, Noodle Play, Sweetish House Mafia to name a few. Also a few food tech startups whom we keep helping in finding good packaging options at an affordable cost. We get 90% of our business through references of our existing clients and networking meets.

Last Sunday, I was dining at a Falafel outlet and I just happened to mention that we could really do wonders if given a chance to revamp their packaging. The ideas were rolling in my head even two days after the incident. Surprisingly on the third day I got a call from the purchase manager of Falafel stating that they wanted me to come over and redo their packaging as they are launching their fifth outlet and the business is slowly picking up (I actually splashed water on my face to check if I was dreaming).

I immediately rushed for the meeting along with the options which would be suitable for them. The meeting lasted for three rounds with the purchase head who explained me their ideas post which we discussed the difficulties in executing them, then I shared what I had in mind which he pretty much agreed to. Then he took me to the senior purchase manager who appreciated our cost effective solutions and finally the senior brand manager who agreed to our boxes over their existing supplies.

Bazinga!!

The meeting closed in approx. 2.5 hours and I walked out with an order of 15000 boxes! Sounds too good to be true now?? This will be followed with an annual rate contract where the company will agree to buy the material only from us and not any other supplier who comes to pitch to them. Law of attraction or sheer luck?

Idea in the making

After a lot of intellectual masturbation on how we can help the small time E-tailers and the Food Tech guys, I thought of coming up with Online Box Store!!! Yes an online store which will have various sizes and small case lots of corrugated boxes which can be used by these individuals to pack their products. Imagine a housewife selling hand made imitation jewelry and selling it over snapdeal/flipkart.

The bigger challenge is how to procure a proper packaging for her products, or someone who is a home baker and does not want to invest much into stocking up the boxes for her cakes/cupcakes can come to our website and buy as low as 100 boxes! Since our major business comes from big corporate giants, the biggest benefit that we will have is our in-house manufacturing facility.

The big advantage

We are soon moving to a 10k sq feet facility in Vasai which will also have a warehousing area for our online boxes.This will also enable us to customize the boxes as per the clients requirements as far as the printing and sizing would go. And who knows some day we could partner with one of the major ecommerce website and get ourselves on their portal!!

The website is already in the making and should be up and running soon!!!

I happened to mention about it to Asha while discussing about a post by Abhinav Gupta on starting a venture in 50000/- Rs. and she asked me to write it down. Also I’m quite sure that there are lot of other fellow Rodinhooders who are in the Food Tech space and could help us grow our footprint in the sector. We would also love to help them by advising them on how they can save on their packaging costs. Also if there are any suggestions I would request you to please write to us!

Adding just a few images of the amazing work that we can do…Our factory at Goregaon is operational on all 7 days of the week and everyone is welcome to drop in.

Email: jaiambe.pkg@gmail.com

Twitter: @boxwala_

***

Comments

Anurag Adukia

23 Comments

asha chaudhry October 24, 2015, 9:22 am

i really liked your falafel story anurag – it shows being honest, pro-active can actually enable startups to help other startups 🙂

btw noodleplay wala hitesh is a rodinhooder 🙂

many more wins your way!

do check anoop’s post out – https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/can-anyone-help-me-with-packing-tips
Anurag Adukia October 24, 2015, 11:18 am

Hey Asha!
thanks for encouraging me to write it down! I’m sure we have miles to go as we are blessed with wonderful souls around us. I hope we get some nice insights from the community which helps us improve what we are doing!
cheers… 🙂
asha chaudhry October 24, 2015, 2:21 pm

ps: once the falafel new packaging is out and in circulation do share a pic here as well – will make us proud 🙂
Anurag Adukia October 27, 2015, 1:10 pm

I had gotten in touch with him at that time and suggested a few things for his work…
yuvraj wadhwani October 28, 2015, 4:17 am

What are the odds.. I am looking for corrugated box suppliers and I get “attracted” to this post. 🙂

Anurag, do you also do e-commerce packaging? Or is it still in the pipeline.

Btw, Flipkart lists many suppliers for packaging for it’s sellers already. The suppliers have basic corrugated boxes and tamper proof bags for sale in various MOQs
Anurag Adukia October 28, 2015, 4:31 am

Hey Yuvraj!
Let me know how I can help you out…
We will approach Flipkart once we move to the bigger facility. You can reach out to me on adukianurag@gmail.com
asha chaudhry October 28, 2015, 4:38 am

this is why i love posts in showcase and keep encouraging people to feature themselves here! a lot of magic happens when you showcase yourself! yuvraj is a rocking e-com player anurag – all the best to you both!
Anurag Adukia October 29, 2015, 11:28 am

We are going to finalise the artwork today! once that’s done will finish the order in a week! now my next target is Grofers!
asha chaudhry October 29, 2015, 11:30 am

WOW. i’m speechless!!

(we’re still talking about falafel, right??!!)

🙂
Kaushal Shah October 30, 2015, 10:56 am

Let me first congratulate you on your online box store idea, its the need of the hour. Everyone wants to sell, but no one knows where to get the packaging material from. I might need your help for packaging material, as I’m into ecomm. Keep rocking!!
Anurag Adukia October 30, 2015, 1:52 pm

Kaushal!
I’m glad to hear that! I’m trying to fill this particular gap for online sellers!
Harshal N Shroff October 30, 2015, 4:40 pm

Serendipity is what I call my meeting with anurag.

Anurag and me were knew each other but never connected on professional terms. I was introduced to his business by this post.Cost effective,durable and beautiful packing is one of the key factors that make or break a fast food startup.

Anurag loves to play the devils advocate with the packaging ideas brought to him. That being said,He would be the best person to get in touch if your looking for a vendor with intergity and a point of view. And a vendor who can teach you a hell lot about packaging.
Gunjan October 30, 2015, 6:09 pm

Hi Anurag, this post comes at a time when I am looking at getting customised boxes in small numbers done for my products.

Let’s connect, I am on gunjan[AT]koyri[DOT]com
Anurag Adukia October 30, 2015, 9:46 pm

Thanks for the kind words Harshal! I’m sure we have miles to go…and yes we will absolutely do something amazing for your brand!
ALOK SHARMA October 31, 2015, 4:34 am

Hi Anurag

Really awesome growth story.

I am just in a planning stages of my foodtech startup.We are still in planning stage and looking forward for some good partners to support us for different requirements.

Will definitely consult you , as soon as we start running.

One Question: Are you providing your services in delhi?or you have some person looking after Delhi-NCR.

Regards

Alok.
Anurag Adukia October 31, 2015, 12:37 pm

you can always mail me!
Anurag Adukia October 31, 2015, 12:37 pm

Hey Alok!
unfortunately we don’t work in that region but I can always help you out with it!
Akshay Chaturvedi October 31, 2015, 1:41 pm

Your post JUST HELPED ME with my biggest problem!! Reaching out to you right away!! 🙂
Anoop Nair November 1, 2015, 2:26 am
Hey Anurag

Liked your business ad the marketing model. The best line in the above write up is – The meeting closed in approx. 2.5 hours and I walked out with an order of 15000 boxes! 🙂

So, you are planning to start an online website for start-ups so that they can place order for corrugated boxes online.. right? I have few questions regarding this.
1. Will you be having the option to customize the branding on the boxes? Like name, logo, slogan, etc?
2. As you said you will be providing the facility to order as low as 100 boxes.. That is really cool. That would help start-ups with less initial budget to buy some quality packing material.
3. Is the website live? If no when do we anticipate to get this online? I would definitely want to be your customer. I hope you would give some early bird discounts 🙂
Would like to get in touch with you regarding packing and branding for our store. Please share your email Id.

Thanks!

Anoop Nair (Co-Founder | The South Indian Store, Selling South Indian Snacks online )

Twitter, Facebook
Anurag Adukia November 2, 2015, 3:04 pm

jaiambe.pkg@gmail.com
Manish November 14, 2015, 2:46 pm

nice gift of Diwali !!!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal November 15, 2015, 11:45 am

fantastic. as the fable goes – the guys who made the most money during the californian gold rush were NOT the gold hunters. They were the pan and spade sellers.

in the big food tech bonanza, the guys who will really make money are not the food entrepreneurs… they will be… 🙂
Anurag Adukia January 2, 2016, 7:32 am

so this is the one we made for falafel!
2/1/16!