1. Ramesh Kumar Dua had a very tough childhood. His father's bicycle parts and footwear business divided, and he had to deal with the 1,00,000 rs debt that came with it. 17-year-old Ramesh dropped out of his medical exam and decided to help his father.
2. He dabbled with both businesses for two years until he chose footwear. To get the seed capital, he rented his family property for Rs 250 and took an advance of 10,000 rs against it. In 1976, Relaxo was born. 🚀
3. Ramesh had no idea about the most used raw material - Rubber. So, he went to the Plastics and Rubber Institute in London to become a rubber technologist. However, it was only for the Top 2%. So, he begged them to let him study without getting a degree. Seeing the passion, he got the admission. 👨🎓
4. While Ramesh was learning rubber, India underwent the infamous emergency in 1977. The government reserved 70% of the footwear sector for small-scale manufacturers only. So, Ramesh had multiple units under Relaxo to give it the status of a small manufacturer. When he came from London, he launched Relaxo's first product.
5. The iconic Hawaii Chappal was born. It was the first slipper made with natural and synthetic blends. To promote, Ramesh paid 100 Rs for the radio jingles when nobody did radio ads. Slowly, everybody started recognizing the brand, and the idea took off. But there was something off. 👇
6. The slippers were unbranded, and retailers removed his stock to sell high-margin branded items. So, he merged different units of Relaxo into one and took the company private in 1983. And the decision that he had been waiting for finally came in 1995. 🙌
7. The footwear industry opened to big manufacturers. Seizing this opportunity, Ramesh invested Rs 7.5 crore for a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant to produce 50,000 pairs daily. Around the same time, it went public and raised 4.5 CR through its IPO. 📉
8. Relaxo's slippers were selling like hotcakes. To keep up with the demand, Ramesh set up a second unit in 1999, followed by another unit with 100,000 pairs daily at Bhiwadi in 2001. By 2003, Relaxo made a revenue of 150 CR. 💸
9. Competition took notice and the 70-year-old Bata Shoes added 20% more discounts. So, Rames expanded in other categories - Sports Shoes (Sparx) in 2005, followed by Sandals (Flite) and Bahamas (Casual Slippers). ✅
10. While Bata's revenue dropped by 85%, Relaxo became a 1000 CR company, with Akshay Kumar (Sparx), Salman Khan (Bahamas), and Sonakshi Sinha (Flite) as brand ambassadors. 💪
➡️ Today, Relaxo has a revenue of 2783 CR. It produces 7.25 lakh pairs of footwear and sells 18 crore slippers yearly. It exports to over five countries and has 50,500 stores in India. All this at a profit of 250 CR and a market share of 9%.
Story of Ramesh Kumar Dua - The Man behind the ultra-famous Hawaii Chappal.
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This post was originally shared by Aditya Arora on Linkedin.