He also makes steel

My Big Idea

Soon after he graduated from college, Vinod decided to go one step further and started making finished designer steel products.

That was the beginning of Magppie in 1994, a company which manufactures and markets designer steel products.

I had just finished college and my family business was in a bad shape. Our small factory was making big losses and my father was on the verge of selling it.

That's when I decided to step in and take up the challenge of starting something new. That was in 1994. I began with cheap products.

I met people in the stainless steel business and buyers from abroad who told me that they were only looking for cheap products. I used up whatever little I made "" a few lakhs "" to travel abroad and meet people.

After my travels one idea struck me: why couldn't we make designer stainless steel products for the international market?

When I came back I set up a design studio in 1998, by investing Rs 1 crore in research and development. This was when my expansion for Magppie started.

I developed a designer range of tabletop and kitchenware articles. I then put all my designs in a catalogue and took part in an international exhibition called Ambietec-Frankfurt in Germany in 1999.

I got a good response and I came back and re-opened our factory in Haryana. Within a year I got orders from almost 40 countries. Magppie started off as an export company.

In 2000, I began selling Magppie in the domestic market. Magppie has since introduced steel kitchen/table/bar/bath accessories in a classy and creative manner, making it a lifestyle statement among the upper middle class.

Our products are exported to Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Australia, North America etc. Magppie's group turnover currently is approximately Rs 65 crore. A major chunk of this comes from the export market.

After having made a mark in the export market, I decided to concentrate on the domestic market. My childhood friend Arun Garg joined me in this endeavour. We were not sure the products would be well accepted here. But to my amazement they were.

Magppie today has a modern design studio and an integrated production system which links everything from design test models to mass produced products "" all under one roof.

We have a team of eight designers from India's best design institutes like NIFT and NID. We have about 100 products.

Apart from retail stores like Shopper's Stop, Ebony and Lifestyle, our clients include major hotel chains like ITC, Taj and Hyatt, and corporate houses like Seagrams, Bacardi, and American Express Bank.

We are now working with our designers to come up with a range of products which are a mix of ceramic and steel.

For these products, we have tied up with factories in China, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. We have been working on this project for the last eight months and it should be ready by the end of this year.

I have also opened offices and showrooms in the UK and Italy. Euro Magppie and Magppie Italy were established in December 2002. I am expecting to do Rs 200 crore turnover from both these markets respectively by the end of the this current fiscal.

I am also moving my Indian designing team to the United Kingdom and I will be bringing the UK designers to India this year. This will help them understand both markets.

I also want to export my designs to other parts of the world. I have floated a separate design company called White Design.

In fact, we have already made a small beginning and are selling our designs to a German company called Le Crueset, which has a brand called Scrupple.

We conceptualise and make wooden samples and based on these samples make the final design. We also do the packaging and specialise in making brochures.

Finally, I want to have my own Magppie exclusive stores both in India and globally. I can do it now but I want to have a larger range of products. Two years down the line I will have a much wider range of products apart from stainless steel.