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While individuals have suffered greatly on account of the pandemic and the lockdown that followed, businesses are struggling to survive. Not all of them will. Parsiana spoke to several Parsi businesspeople to ascertain their survival strategy and plans for keeping afloat.
When pharmaceutical giant Cipla chose Sovereign Pharma Private Limited to manufacture the anti viral drug Remdesivir, the Parsi-owned, Daman-based company "rose to the challenge.” Director Rishad Dadachanji noted in a press release dated July 7, 2020 that "at our current capacity, we can supply 50,000 to 95,000 pieces of the injectable per month.” The company had to also address the menace of black marketeers "who sold this drug at 10 times its maximum retail price,” noted Gev Karai from their finance department, who communicated with Parsiana.
A robust communication strategy was the key to uninterrupted operations at the Schott Kaisha (SK) group of companies which have some common shareholders and directors with Sovereign. They are in the business of pharmaceutical packaging with plants in Daman and Gujarat. "We continuously kept the staff up to speed through video speeches and updates,” stated Karai. "Our 1,514 people rose to the challenge… staff was transported from homes to the plants while a few were housed in hotels for up to six weeks, with meals, and even multi vitamin medicines. "It was touching to see ladies, some with children a few months old remain in the hotels to stand by their organization… Checkup programs by doctors led to a great moral build up.”
Under their corporate social responsibility programs, SK Group provided Covid testing kits manufactured by their business partners, Serum Institute of India, masks, gloves and sanitizers in and around the villages of all their sites. "We bought and donated an ambulance for local patients” in Daman, Karai shared. "The challenge is far from over,” he stated.
Chairman and managing director of Satara based Cooper Corporation Farrokh Cooper narrated that he could have reacted only in three possible ways when he heard Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden announcement of the lockdown: "Fright there was; as for flight you couldn’t go anywhere… the only option left was to fight and fight we did with all our might.” Domestic demand for their products, which include precision engineered products like engines, generators, crankshafts, pistons and flywheels, has been slow to move but things are now gaining momentum, he noted on August 6. "A major concern is in getting components from suppliers, many of whom are still in containment zones,” he wrote.
In the early stages of the lockdown, "with great persuasion we could convince the local government authorities to permit us to dispatch goods for exports which were already packed. In view of our export commitments we were allowed to operate our factory with 100 people for export consignments.” Their foreign clients "continued to pay their bills without any excuses or delays. This kept the company running.” Salaries were paid as usual, stated the business leader. "It has been Cooper’s tradition to employ only local labor so we could start our factories immediately but what we could not do was to take supplies to our customers… we had to contend with huge idle capacities and losses.” The company received "large unsolicited enquiries from customers who were formerly using Chinese goods… This pulled us through back into full production,” he stated.
The Nagpur based Bapuna Group diverted a portion of its production facilities to Covid care. Their Nagpur plant provided one lakh liters of sanitizers to government and private hospitals free of cost while their Gwalior plant supplied one-and-a-half lakh liters to the government at highly subsidized rates at the peak of the lockdown, noted company president Shiraz Gimi on August 14. Other welfare projects included aid to community kitchens for migrant workers, and provision of milk to those in quarantine centers. "Summer is the peak season for our ice-cream business (but sadly) it was a washout,” Gimi noted.  

 Clockwise from top left: bulk and retail packaging of sanitizers from Bapuna Group; protective gear and

 masks from Uniforms Unlimited; inaugurating an ambulance for villagers around Schott Kaisha’s plant;

 inset: anti viral Remdesivir from Sovereign Pharma

 

 

 

 

 

  Clockwise from top left: Rustom’s: "business is not a patch;"

  (1^st row) spices from Shelley Subawalla: "people won’t stop eating;"

  (2^nd row) online class beamed from T.I.M.E.

 

 

 

 

 

"No direct relief”
Expansion plans of Farohar Engineering in Bombay had to be postponed when the lockdown was announced, noted partner Delzad Karani on August 12. The firm that manufactures and services brake tools, shearing tools, liners and other engineering items at Rabale on the outskirts of Bombay was to move in the first week of March to the new facility in Ambernath. A deal was struck in February and the first installment of funds was paid out of their own reserves. Despite "no income whatsoever” and overheads to be met, "on humanitarian grounds our staff salaries were paid for two months without any work.” When the lockdown was eased, facilities moved to the new location.
"Shifting in such scenario…and at same time meeting clients’ deadlines with reduced capacity became stressful,” Karani said. Suppliers for companies like Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and others classified as essential services, Farohar "managed to start the plant with limited staff… Some of the skilled machine operators migrated to their home towns despite assurances of pay and accommodation,” and needed to be "coaxed and recalled.” Critical of the much-touted financial package the union government announced for small businesses, Karani stated, "There was no direct relief scheme for us.”
Managing director of Uniforms Unlimited (UU) and founder of Dezenzia Designer Duglis, Zubin Mehta said his company has ventured into manufacturing of personal protective equipment, face masks, face shields and other related products for corporate bodies. The company has adapted and diversified "mainly to support the immigrant laborers and their families,” Mehta noted in an email dated June 26. New patterns and designs for reusable protection gowns for outdoor use as well as innovative reusable cloth face masks in various fabrics and prints are available, he said. These can be further customized by printing companys’ logos on the masks. As and when the business scenario improves, UU will incorporate changes in uniforms to meet post-pandemic requirements, he stated.
A moratorium on repayments of loans disbursed by the WZO (World Zoroastrian Organisation) Trust Funds till September 2020 was announced by Trust chairman Dinshaw Tamboly. The Trust extends interest free financial support to small and medium entrepreneurs, with 50 to 60 new loans given each year. "However, it came as a pleasant surprise to hear from 53 of our present 130 beneficiaries that we should from July onwards begin to deposit their repayment cheques,” Tamboly said.
 
Clearing matters
The liquidity position of supply chain and logistics services provider Jeena & Company has "come within manageable proportions,” wrote partner Homi Katgara on August 11. "Our cash flows (had) slowed down posing a risk to our business continuity... Our credit management team worked day upon day, customer by customer, invoice by invoice, monitoring each item minutely,” he appreciated. With the support of their in-house information technology team, "Jeena was the first Indian freight forwarding company to implement 100% work from home initiative successfully… a full week before the complete lockdown in India,” noted Katgara. The company paid off its dues to International Air Transport Association (IATA) on previously set due dates "without taking a single day’s extension” that was offered by the Association. "I am happy to state that during this entire period of uncertainty Jeena did not retrench any staff although our revenues fell to a level of five percent of normal revenues during April. We have bounced back to achieving 100% revenue level in July (as) prior to lockdown.”
Katgara stated that Jeena was the "only company authorized to ship all Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) related supplies — testing kits, laboratory consumables, medical equipment, face masks, etc — to all testing centers and hospitals on pan India basis.” ICMR is the apex government body in medical research and clinical management in India. "We also handled all imports on their behalf from China, Hong Kong, Germany, USA, and Singapore,” he stated.
The Master Group of logistics companies that Capt Percy Master leads is classified as an essential service (operations continued). They are in the business of providing back office support for 80% of shipping lines that ply from India and examination of cargo among others, Master stated on August 1. When the lockdown started, ships in India’s ports were stranded for want of cargo. "By March end, our business fell by 60%,” he noted. Required to serve their clients round the clock, the company "ensured that work did not suffer… We achieved that objective,” noted Master. While March salaries were fully paid, the company deferred salaries for April and May, with a promise to pay later. "They all agreed to support the management... We saw to it that the lowest rung of staff got full wages, 15 % less to higher category and 50 % less to management category. Even after doing this we were in heavy losses.” Full wages were paid June onwards again, "because the deferred wage bill was getting inflated...We decided to bear the losses upfront and wait for normalcy to return by October-November,” noted Master.
Accepting that the threat of Covid will not go away soon, the Group "went in for a mobile app to monitor staff presence with their locations.” A new software to measure performance and productivity is under consideration. Medical insurance was enhanced after the Group lost three staff members to the virus and 37 tested positive. "This pandemic has taught us all to reinvent ourselves both at home and in our business,” noted Master. 

Continuing to serve
"Fewer people moving out means fewer customers in your shop. People only buy essentials,” noted Cyrus Dotivala of his Surat-based family-run nearly 160-year-old Dotivala Bakers and Confectioners. "All this has reduced the business to less than half,” he stated in an email on August 5. To ensure that those staff members who have remained in Surat are healthy, the firm ensures "regular distribution of Vitamin C and D tablets and the serving of turmeric milk” before closing for the day. "Endless use of sanitizers and masks to keep them safe through the day and increase in disposables like gloves and caps… (has put) an added burden on business,” he stated.
Medora Travel Service of Ahmedabad is reducing their car fleet in order to liquidate assets and clear debts, stated owner Oorvaksh Medora. "But, the resale market (for cars) is very poor too,” he rued. "The booking team has been working only on cancellations...We have had one or two sporadic bookings, but nothing to sustain the staff or overhead expenses,” he noted in an email on August 5. Their car rental division has been transporting expats to airports in Ahmedabad, Bombay and Delhi airports for evacuation during the lockdown but "the numbers are low.” The company paid "a token salary up to July and from August we have reduced our office staff by 50%,” Medora stated. "Our drivers, who are safely staying at their village where they can sustain themselves on just a bit of agriculture, have been advised to stay put there. We are working with 10% drivers only,” the business owner noted.
 Hyderabad’s T.I.M.E. (Triumphant Institute of Management Education) has, in end July, moved on to a system where students can interact with the faculty online, founder Manek Daruvala told Parsiana on August 13. "We are supporting all the classes with Telegram and WhatsApp groups where students post their doubts and faculty members clear them.”  Prior to this "only recorded classes were beamed centrally from Hyderabad for students across the country” to enable central quality control. "It would also take care of issues like power and internet failure.” Some classroom locations have been reduced. "We have retained most of our permanent faculty members,” he said. Critical of the information technology infrastructure in the country, Daruvala commented that internet speeds are a constraint in Tier III cities. "Even in Hyderabad we have problems every three or four days.”
Even prior to the lockdown, "we had been providing recorded videos online to our students to supplement our classroom courses... But, due to the lockdown we were without our recording studio and all our equipment.” The transition to online teaching "was a smooth one... Today we service upwards of 40,000 students who attend our online classes,” Daruvala stated.
 "Revenue from the outdoor advertising business has been almost non-existent since April,” according to Numazar Mehta, chairman of Calcutta’s Selvel One. Critical of the central government’s "so called rescue package,” he regretted the promised benefits had not reached those who needed it most. "We have not asked any of our staff members to go on unpaid leave yet....but we may soon have to,” the businessman noted.
"Change is the only constant, and this (pandemic) has made us all realize that the faster you adapt, the longer you will survive,” stated Delhi-based owner of integrated marketing services agency Creatigies, Navroze Dhondy. He said his company had to adapt to a new way of engagement in-house and with clients in sports, fashion, entertainment and media businesses, emphasizing the use of the "ubiquitous Zoom calls.” Marketeers "who had looked at digital media as a ‘nice to do’ part of their plans were scrambling to decode this animal, and bring it to the central focus of their marketing plans,” he stated. "The toughest task for many businesses has been to chop their teams down to the bone, or slash salaries. Neither of this was something we subscribed to.”
With folks staying indoors and wanting to experiment with cookery, Shelley Subawalla who runs a spices and condiments home business from Delhi, started a new brand of spices. "I realized that even though things look bleak, people won’t stop eating and the current work circumstances will make them enter the kitchen more.” The spices she manufactures under the brands Zarin’s Secrets (for Parsi cuisine) and Frenny by Zarin’s Secrets (for other Indian cuisines) are popular with the Parsi diaspora, and within India. "Internationally, business is still suffering as I have a lot of orders pending” since couriers haven’t resumed global deliveries. 
"Business is not a patch on what it used to be... but there is a gradual increase,” noted Kainaz Contractor who runs Rustom’s, the eatery in Delhi Parsi Anjuman’s (DPA) Mengusi Dharamshala. She spoke to Parsiana on July 31. When restaurants were allowed to open for delivery, the entrepreneur added street food to her take-away menu. Weekend specials with newer dishes resulted in regular customers "ordering more than they used to... but I have to see that they order week on week...and to keep costs to the minimum and ensure no wastage in preparation.” The entrepreneur was scheduled to open a new restaurant in Kailash Colony just a week before the lockdown was clamped but now operates the new venture as a delivery-only kitchen, she said, expressing appreciation for the DPA giving her a rebate on rental payments. 
"Production, sound and light designers, backstage people, tent providers, singers, dancers, musicians, models, choreographers, florists and many more have been severely hit with literally no work for the past four months,” wrote Mehernavaz (Meher) Aria, Hyderabad based founder of event management company Star Ventures. Her company has done only four small scale events for a wedding in one family. "No corporate events... no fundraisers,” she rues. "The months of meticulous and detailed planning no longer holds good... We have to be ready to come up with ideas and then coordinate and execute them at short notice... Budgets have taken a beating.”
"I wish we could all wake up one morning and find that this was all just a bad dream... wishful thinking though,” Aria lamented.