Dasharath lives in Khandela, Rajasthan, with his wife, parents, and two
sons – Bablu and Mayank. He used to own an electrical parts shop in the
local marketand then almost 6 years ago he decided to invest in his own
Sarvajal business ; thanks to a strong recommendation from another
franchisee. In just a few weeks of setting up, Dasharath rented his
first delivery vehicle and ever since business has been steadily
climbing , to the point where he sold his other electrical parts venture
about two years ago to dedicate all his time to Sarvajal.
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| Dasharathji from Khandela |
Dasharath’s two sons are currently studying at a local college
in Sikar. Bablu, the elder one, has taken a long time to complete his
studies because of various familial duties. He makes a trip back home at
least once a week to help out, and as a result has missed most of his
classes over the past few years. He hopes to complete his Bachelors
degree . by early next year, and then work on their Sarvajal model..
Mayank is discouraged from coming home as often so that he can follow
his dream of becoming a chartered accountant.
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| Dasharathji's Old Sarvajal Delivery Vehicle |
Khandela
is a reasonably small town, where word-of-mouth plays a much stronger
role in business development than elaborate marketing campaigns.
Understanding this, Dasharath has over the years taken his time to
develop relationships with both households and shopkeepers, and consequently has a steady list of customers to whom he delivers
Sarvajal daily. In fact, he now delivers over 7,000 litres of pure water
to about 500 loyal consumers everyday. These customers pay him once a
month, or whenever he happens to come along during a delivery trip with
his employees. There seems to exist an understanding between Dasharath
and his patrons as he doesn’t harass them for payments and, very
surprisingly, doesn’t even mandate a security deposit on his campers or
bottles. Staying in touch with customers through personal visits,
sending out Holi and Diwali greeting cards, and allowing customers to
walk in and pick up their own water any time of the day, have all
contributed to maintaining strong community engagement and a loyal bunch
of consumers.
Dasharath
attributes his success to patience, open mindedness, and the
willingness to go out of his way to make his customers satisfied.
However, what sticks out as most unique is an extremely efficient
delivery system. Given the large customer list, he decided to split the
group into two geographical areas, delivering to each group on alternate
days. Most customers therefore end up taking 2 days worth of water each
visit, and he is thus able to cater to everybody’s daily needs. Despite
the system, both delivery vehicles make at least 2 trips everyday. To
minimize diesel costs, Dasharath has equipped one vehicle with a 1,000
litre tank, and the other has 1,700 litres capacity. This way, he
saves trips by cleaning and filling up customer’s bottles on site
without having to carry too many empty ones back and forth from the
plant.
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| Water Containers |
Up
until June, 2014, Dasharath was categorized under the old RO model, and
co-owned the machine with Sarvajal, paying franchisee fees of about INR
0.12 per litre. As is discernible from the graph above, his production
seemed to hit a ceiling at just about 5000+ litres a day, and so he
decided to upgrade his machine to 1000 LPH capacity, and simultaneously
switched to an SF model, making him the sole owner of the machine. An
immediate jump in sales is evident, though it is hard to isolate the
individual impact of two variables – an increase in production capacity,
and the fact that the machine is now 100% his property – as they have
both historically proved to elicit similar improvements. Regardless, his
production has doubled ever since, and he is now selling more in the
winter than he did during peak summer, 2013. Keeping track of such large
sales volumes has proved tricky, and Dasharath had to buy himself a
computer to simplify all of the bookkeeping.
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| Dasharathji's one of the New Delivery Vehicles |
To
cope with the added pressure of doubling his delivery, Dasharath has
increased his labour force to a total of 5 employees plus his son Bablu.
The 7 of them together seem to manage all daily activities, albeit via a
tightly packed schedule. Dasharath’s brothers and their families all
work in Calcutta, and he therefore doesn’t have any extra helping hands
from within the family. On top of that, he says that finding reliable
long-term labour is difficult in the area. Already, he has seen high
employee turnover and hence recently increased salaries to ensure that
the current crew stays for at least a few more years.
Despite
the fact that he chills and home-delivers purified water, Dasharath
charges the nominal amount of INR 0.50 per litre – and has subsequently
established himself as the strongest player in the competitive local
drinking water market. Still, he does not let his venture grow stagnant,
and is always on the lookout for possibilities of expansion. His loyal
customer base sustains business at a comfortable level, but to
compensate for seasonal cycles in water demand, he focuses on events
such as weddings and conferences through caterers and event organizers
in the winter. Furthermore, he recently expanded his ‘delivery radius’
to include a nearby town to which he delivers every third day, thereby
cementing his position as the local go-to clean water producer.
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| Dasharathiji's employees with Sarvajal Water Containers |
Today, Dasharath
operates with two delivery vehicles; five helpers who drive and deliver
directly to customers; two large volume chillers; and an 11,000 litre capacity
reserve tank to compensate for electricity shortages. Since his recent upgrade
to a 1000 LPH machine his business has grown into one of Sarvajal’s most
successful franchisees, earning enough to feed his entire family, send two sons
to college, and also fund the daily upkeep of a local Temple where his RO plant
is housed.
and his patrons
as he doesn’t harass them for payments and, very surprisingly, doesn’t even
mandate a security deposit on his campers or bottles. Staying in touch with
customers through personal visits, sending out Holi and Diwali greeting cards,
and allowing customers to walk in and pick up their own water any time of the
day, have all contributed to maintaining strong community engagement and a
loyal bunch of consumers.
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