Brring: To Increase Its Presence in 31 Cities & Cold Infrastructure Fleet

Brring started off as an offshoot of Sovika Aviation. The business started under Sovika Aviation in November 2014 with Big basket as the 1st client. As the business grew, we were quite clear that we wanted to create a separate entity, which will be a pioneer in the Indian perishable logistics space and thus Brring was born in April 2016.

As soon as the operations started, Brring was only a last mile solution partner to Big Basket. But over the period we realized that there is a huge market potential in the perishable/non-perishable industry due to various factors like the food industry growing at a CAGR of 11% and expected to reach US$ 65.4 billion, boom in ecommerce, increasing disposable income, momentum in International trade, enhanced government support. etc.

Also, with my past industry experience we realised that there is a huge gap in the perishable logistics industry with no dedicated player providing end to end supply chain solutions for the perishable Industry and thus we were inspired to start Brring, with our strength lies in understanding the client’s requirement and building/customizing solutions as per their need. We try to create innovative, sustainable and cost effective solutions rather than just implementing those processes already present in the industry.

Brring had raised Rs. 4 crores in 2014 from Sovika Group. Investor names include: Sahil Mehta, Director, Sovika Group and Akhilesh Rao, COO, Sovika Group. Currently the CEO is Abhishek Nehru.

BWDISRUPT's Soumya Gupta interacts with the Brring's startup core team.
Excerpts:

What does the startup do?
Brring provides end to end logistics solutions for perishable and non-perishable food and beverage industry. It is mentored and led by a team of professionals who collectively have 100+ years of experience in Logistics, Retail and Aviation. Brring also extends its capabilities in providing cold chain solutions and sourcing of staples & exotic fruits. Our capabilities include; sourcing, first mile pick-up, warehousing, packaging, fleet management, training and development and last mile delivery. Given our extensive network and service capabilities, we have been able to create a perishable logistics ecosystem for dairy products, meat, fish & poultry, fruits & vegetables and horticulture produce. Additionally, we also provide economical customized solutions for online grocery store, quick service restaurants (QSR’s), exclusive cold chain solutions for hospitals and online B2B Retailers.

What makes it stands our in the crowd, its unique key feature/services?
Some of the key features or services that we provide are like AM pickup and PM delivery and vice versa, slotted local delivery, local delivery within 6 to 12 hours along with 60-90 mins express hyperlocal delivery. Our services reach out to at least 80% of pin codes in the top 10 A cities and 15+ B cities.

How is it different from existing ones?
Our strength lies in understanding the client’s requirement and building/customizing solutions as per their need, and in order to do so we are ready to mend our existing processes or create new ones. We try to create innovative, sustainable and cost effective solutions rather than just implementing those processes already present in the industry. Also, our core focus is to provide end to end quality supply chain solutions for the perishable and nonperishable food industry. We also want to bring a Green Revolution, by moving towards an eco-friendly, pollution free and sustainable green supply chain.

To promote green supply chains, Brring has deployed exclusive green cold chain solutions for hospitals by deploying CNG vehicles that are 100% eco-friendly. Another big leap towards the vision of green supply chain includes Brring’s recent purchase of 50 Mahindra Electric vehicles (ESupro) and deployment of the same for Big Basket operations in Delhi. Brring has also purchased battery operated three wheelers Greenrick to promote ecofriendly deliveries across Bangalore and Delhi.

What is the current funding status of the startup?
Until now 4 crores has been invested in the company and Brring has clocked 20 crores in revenues just in the last 7-8 months itself. By Apr, 2017, Brring is expected to raise another round of funding from the market.

What kind of the monetization model do your follow?
Cost Plus Model – Clients like Big Basket, Grofers, etc.
The complete cost of operations (warehouse management fees, manpower, transportation, other costs) is billed back at actuals to the client with a service a charge ideally between 7% to 10%

Fixed Cost Model – Udaan, ShopX, etc.
Fixed cost is charged with a defined SLA. (e.g. a fixed cost is charged from the client for managing first mile, last mile, warehouse/hub cost, picking, packing segregating)

Per Delivery Cost Model – Amazon, etc.
The client is charged for per package/per product delivered to the customer, with a minimum guarantee of X no of shipments from the customer

Please share the Traction details of the past few months?
Brring started operations in Pune with one hub and a few vehicles for last-mile deliveries, with tight operational SLAs and on-time deliveries. After the successful operational setup in Pune, Big Basket wanted to start operations in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Tier-II cities. Today, Brring’s client list includes Big Basket, Grofers, Udaan, Tokri, Fortis Hospital, Flipkart, Furlenco, McDonald’s, Finger Lix, and Amazon.

We are working on creating a hub-and-spoke model for Fortis Hospitals' kitchens, in order to reduce operational inefficiencies. The complete cost of operations (warehouse management fees, manpower, transportation, other costs) is billed back at actuals to the client with a service charge between seven and 10 percent. A fixed cost is charged with a defined SLA. Even the client is charged per package/product delivered to the customer.

What kind of Future plans are you ideating on?
In the next 2 years we want to grow our operations from 16 to 31 cities. Sourcing - Setup a sourcing vertical so that we can use our logistical strength to move perishables directly from the farms to the client warehouse. Cold Chain Infrastructure – Setting up cold chain warehouses at the farm gate and expansion of our cold chain fleet.

What are your Marketing plans in the near future?
We are looking to raise around 3 Million USD by April, 2017 and about 1 Million USD from the funds will be invested in building a robust technology platform under Brring

What are the Challenges faced while building this venture?
Initially when we began, we faced various challenges in our day to day operations with regards to vehicle and cost optimization, productivity, fuel consumption and pilferage, ensuring 100% SLA, high customer experience and satisfaction with zero breach. In our cold chain operations, maintaining the ideal temperature throughout the delivery process was a big challenge.

To support the cold chain operation a robust system and appropriate technology was required. We also realized the need for Green Supply Chain Solutions for reducing the carbon footprint. To overcome the above issues, we have taken necessary steps like building strong tech systems, which monitored our vehicles and productivity (currently all our vehicles are 100% GPS enabled with live monitoring systems).

To reduce fuel pilferage, we introduced Smart Fleet cards (BPCL), after studying the fuel trend of 6 months, a fixed amount was recharged in these cards and fueling was to be done through these cards only, any deviations from the process was accounted and necessary measures were taken. To ensure maximum vehicle productivity, we went ahead with ‘Cross Utilitzation of our vehicles’, eg: vehicles used for Big Basket operations in the day were being utilized for MC Donald’s project in the night.

What is the Market size & opportunity you are currently looking at?
Logistics market in India is expected to be worth US$ 307 billion by 2020. India spends around 14.4% of its GDP on logistics and transportation as compared to less than 8% spent by the other developing countries. This is as per industry estimates.