Entrepreneurs diversify for sustenance

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 16

Babita Gupta, founder of Sonepat-based Sarangi Creations, has been supplying home furnishings to the domestic and international markets since 2007. However, in March this year, her company, like most other businesses, took a hit because of the pandemic followed by the lockdown. As the demand for her products fell significantly, she started looking for ways to keep her business afloat and forayed into making face masks.

She secured her first order of 80,000 masks from Walmart’s Best Price and has already sold over 1.5 lakh masks. “This is the crisis for which we were not prepared. I had a support from Walmart’s Vriddhi team that offered mentorship. Considering the shortage of masks in the country, I decided to venture into its manufacturing,” said Babita. She plans to export masks to Italy and the UK.

Like Babita, there are many others who have diversified into unexplored territories for their sustenance.

Shivani Agarwal, founder of Scraft Products (P) Ltd., was manufacturing tissue papers, toilet rolls and aluminum foil for food packaging before the Covid. With the lockdown and curbs on travel, the demand for these products fell significantly. Considering the demand transition, she diversified into manufacturing hand sanitisers and disinfectants. She has supplied over one lakh litres of hand sanitiser since March.

Similarly, when Rahul Bajaj’s steel utensils business came to a halt after the lockdown, he started manufacturing hands-free hand-wash station, which operates through a foot pedal. He also devised a sensor-based sanitiser dispenser.

“We have serviced over 4,000 orders for hands-free hand-wash stations to several companies and government institutions,” said Rahul. He has received orders from the Home Ministry, CRPF, BSF, police stations, mohalla clinics, Hero Moto Corp, Wipro, Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP among others. He plans to launch automatic foot sanitiser, which is ideal for public places.