QimatRai Gupta
“I am a common man, and I remain a common man,”
QimatRai Gupta was the founder and former chairperson of the Havells, electrical company. He was born in the year 1937 in Punjab before the India-Pakistan partition took place. He moved to Delhi in the year 1958, after quitting his studies. But formerly he was a school teacher. He initially started the electrical trading shop in the Bhagirath Place with the name ‘Guptaji& Company’ which was basically a wholesale electrical shop. Qimat was so dedicated to his work that he worked till his last day.His sheer determination to achieve was something that everyone would talk about.
His company was more driven to selling the products to distributors. When distributors would run for stock to big companies like Siemens, Qimat used to offer credit terms. Many of the distributors have money with this company. The company has never been short of money. Qimat made it to the rich list when the net profit of the company doubled its sales in the year 2014. He made his fortune by selling switchgear in rural India and cables, lights and fans in urban India. He acquired Germany-based Company Sylvania Lighting which has successfully turned around the company.
He used to look at the faces of people to gauge how confident they were in achieving their goals. When the company made 1-2% profit line, he always targeted more about 5% by reducing the costs in the plant. His instructions were always followed to the tee.
He was married to Vinod Gupta with two sons and a daughter. His second son Anil Rai Gupta is the chairman and the managing director for the business. His son joined the business in the year 1992.He implemented the marketing strategy that transformed a family business brand to global business brand. Inspired by his father he honed entrepreneurial skills which marked the company y innovation and best product range. Anil guided the company though the global economic crisis took place in 2008. Under his guidance it continued booking profits. He modernized the plants with the best overall infrastructure.
Due to cardiac arrest, he died at the age of 77 on 7th November 2014.
About the company
Havells is listed in the fastest growing FMEG companies with the best infrastructure and most modern plants across India. In 1971 Qimat purchased the existing company Havells from Haveli Ram Gandhi. He felt this brand name sounds international and desired to purchase the company. He started the first manufacturing plant inTilak Nagar, New Delhi. It is among the top five lighting brands in the world with revenue of $3 billion. It makes everything from electrical switches to fans and wires.Havells owns global brands like Crabtree, Sylvania, Concord, Luminance and Standard.It also provides mid-day meals for Government schools for about 50,000 students in Alwar, Rajasthan.
However Havells has achieved much but it came to the limelight about 5 years ago.
Awards
In 2013, He was conferred with EY Entrepreneur of the year award.
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