Design to success unravelled
Dcube is the aggregator of designer products from India and abroad. It has become a retail platform for most of the small designers who could not afford a store.
Satya Prakash, a management graduate from IIM Kozhikode left his 14-year software career and accompanied his longtime friend David to partner with Dcube in 2011. Dcube was founded in 2006 by Neelima and Sushma Reddy with an investment of around Rs.50 lakh to create first lifestyle store with largest designer products in the City.
Talking about the business idea, Satya Prakash said, Dcube is the aggregator of designer products from India and abroad. It has become a retail platform for most of the small designers who could not afford a store. The concept was first of its kind in South India and later followed in other cities like Bangalore and Chennai.
“The initial challenge was to convince and bring designers on board. The founders had to pump in personal money for operations till the business got operational break-even in 2010 because of the thin margins. The business had invested more than `1 crore over time on various needs like leasing the property, copyrights of designer products and manufacturing. The other challenge was to raise loans for working capital. Despite the reputation that we gained in last six years, banks are not ready to offer loans without a collateral security,” said Satya Prakash.
“We had tie-ups with around 600 designers and sell at least products of 90 designers at any given point of time. We have started designing and manufacturing of own products like apparels, mugs, handbags and souvenirs. We are also promoting the products that reflect brand Hyderabad from local designers,” he said.
The company started an online store in 2009 and has shipped products to more than 45 countries. “Around 5,000 designer products are available at our online store and taking 8-12 per cent of the total revenues. Almost 20 per cent of online sales are generated from the City-based customers,” he said.
The company has grown over 100 per cent in the first four months of the financial year, compared to the last fiscal because of adding design studio services to the portfolio which offers branding and designing cultural spaces.
Company profile
Retail products: Over 8,000
Online Products: 5,000
Growth rate: 100 % year on year
Retailing: Designed products Merchandise
Artefacts
Curios
Knick knacks
Quirky gifts
Services: Custom designing and bulk orders for corporates
Category: Business, Business News
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