“Improved sustainability and eco-friendly practices“
GAIN INSIGHT INTO THE COMPANY
Go Green Warehouses Pvt Limited, was registered in 2012 by Maulik Shah and his family members, providing Warehousing in Gujarat. In the Year 2018, Mr. Santosh Sahu and Mr. Maulik Shah met and decided to expand this into an Agri value chain company. Go Green Warehouses provides services such as financial assistance and collateral management for harvested goods to help make the agricultural value chain run more smoothly for farmers and FPOs. Under the leadership of the relentless personality of Mr. Maulik, Mr. Sahu, and his team, Go Green Warehouses has established a presence in 24+ states.
Santosh Kumar Sahu is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Go Green Warehouses Pvt Limited, one of India’s fast-growing Agritech startups in the field of providing collateral management services. and agricultural warehouses. The company is present in more than 450 locations spread across 24+ states of India. Starting life with a very small salary of Rs 6000 per month to start his business empire with a Rs 100 million investment funded through Mr. Maulik & his family, Santosh’s life story has inspired many youths across the country.
Today, he is one of the owners of this fast-growing group of companies Gogreen Warehouses, a multi-industry, winged conglomerate spanning India in agricultural value chain solutions. A graduate of agriculture with an MBA from Dhirubhai Ambani ICT Institute, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and as a technocrat, Santosh advocates the power of experience to bring about a dramatic change in people’s lives. people and solve their problems. Recipient of multiple awards such as Best CEO of 2022, Greatest Leader & Brand of India, and Humanitarian Entrepreneur active in raising social morale through multiple initiatives of the Gogreen Group. Details of these initiatives can be viewed at www.gogreenwarehouses.com.
IDENTIFYING KEY PERSON IN AN ORGANIZATION:
Mr. Santosh is a first-generation entrepreneur having no business background of his family. He believes that successful entrepreneurs are both patient and persistent when it comes to planning for their clients and employees. He also adds that any large-scale change effort teaches life. Mr. Sahu’s five key lessons in his journey are: Steady growth requires tough prioritization, Diversification, trust, empathy, and communication. Ask someone for help. Learning: Failure is the best teacher. How you take failure is the key to success after failure.
DEVELOPMENT OF POST-PANDEMIC PLANS
After the pandemic, the demand for warehouses increased. Institutional investors around the world are watching the warehousing sector in India. This industry is growing rapidly. After the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce companies have increased the use of warehouses as demand for goods skyrocketed. The pandemic has increased cold chain storage space for organized food distribution. As a result, the warehouse business has become a resilient asset class and continues to rise in the real estate industry. For automation and efficiency, warehouses invest heavily in technology. In addition, the development of the warehouse is profitable because it’s a very low capital-intensive and high-return business.
INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE
Santosh Sahu worked with more than 10+ Companies in Agri value chain before he joined this so having a wide range of experience on a nationwide basis. Mr. Sahu and Mr. Shah discovered that agricultural warehouses are specialized and no big player has a big market share. The industry was suffering from a lack of trust and substandard service, so the visionaries founded Go Green, a warehousing company, to provide personalized services that build trust/ transparency and rapid growth by engaging management owners.
ENTREPRENEUR JOURNEY
In 2018, Go Green Warehouses started offering integrated inventory management solutions. The company’s trained staff provides post-harvest services to stakeholders in the agricultural value chain. Electronically connected and strategically planned websites, innovative processes and stakeholder dedication enable the company to manage businesses of all sizes. Go Green Warehouses is transforming warehousing and logistics for agribusinesses. Initially, banking institutions do not show much interest towards smaller start-ups like us as there were already established players in the industry, which created barriers to the business establishment in the Agri warehousing & CM segment. But now everyone in the market wants us to be their service provider as now we are amongst the top 5 agri warehousing companies in India for the last 2 years.
ANTICIPATE POTENTIAL CHALLENGES FACED
Start-up banks/institutions are compared to older players in the industry who were working in the space for more than 15+ years, where businesses, like Go Green Warehouses, face a number of barriers to starting a business. Go Green Warehouse has been competing with these old & established companies to find the best talent. The company also trains freshers to build it taking talent from B & C category B- Schools. Capital is one of the challenges faced by the company. Mr. Sahu has seen cash flow problems that forced many ambitious plans to be scrapped many times in the last 5 years.
CUSTOMISED SOLUTIONS TAILORED BY GO GREEN WAREHOUSES
In 2018, Go Green Warehouses started offering integrated inventory management solutions. Its employees provide post-harvest services to stakeholders in the agricultural value chain. The company transforms logistics and warehousing for non-agricultural businesses.
It provides:
- Preservation and storage
- Preliminary processing (sorting, cleaning, sorting)
- Quality control and analysis solutions
- Commodity financial support
- Farmer support services
- Services inspection and inspection services
- Auditing Financial and market linkage solutions for monthly last-mile farmers
- Adding services to the consumption and production aspects of the value chain has evolved the initiative Go Green Warehouses both horizontally and vertically. Its upstream integration through small warehouse-based collection centers enables direct supply from farmers and FPOs.
UNDERSTANDING THE CEO’s THOUGHT PROCESS
As a leader, Mr. Sahu believes it is essential to inspire his colleagues to drive business success. Go Green Warehouses helps businesses solve transparency and trust issues in the industry by becoming a trusted service provider. The company started this process in 2018 hoping to focus on a specific geographical area of India, but customers have responded well to the new company. As a result, the company is now present in 24+ states with more than 450 Locations and more than 3,500 customers storing goods in more than 1500+ warehouses in the country. The purpose of Go Green Warehouses is to serve farmers and lead the way in agricultural storage in India. His team uses innovative methods to reach growers and OPAs with high-quality products and improve buyers’ linkages with their warehouses to establish agricultural markets. Mr. Santosh describes his unique business model: “The company solves the customer’s most important problems, from farm to table. It serves grain farmers and consumers such as processors, retailers, importers, exporters, etc., who use the product.
CREATING AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH THE BRAND
Distrust spreads like wildfire in relationships. Mr. Sahu believes that an unresolved doubt becomes a doubt, and then an unproven belief. To build trust and awareness, the Go Green warehouse interacts across all markets. Honesty and integrity have always been important to the company. Mr. Santosh believes that customers trust his company because it strictly adheres to the 8 Pillars of Trust that every employee understands every day as it’s 8Cs also. The pillars of trust are Clarity: People are wary of ambiguity. Compassion: Caring for people builds trust. Personality: Outstanding integrity. Competence: Customers trust competent and knowledgeable people. Commitment: Persevere to inspire. Bonding: Friends stalking, bribing, besieging. Contribution: Results are immediately noticeable. Consistency: People like little things done consistently.
GO GREEN CUSTOMER(s)
Most businesses depend on customers because they pay for the company’s products. Mr. Sahu believes that good customer management can lead to customer loyalty. As a result, satisfied customers will recommend Go Green Warehouses to other buyers, which increases sales. The CEO also believes that brands, especially consumer-centric ones like Go Green Warehouses, need to stay connected. The CRM apps and business relationship manager allow for personalized central office engagements and personal meetings with customers. Go Green Warehouses finds customers in person and by phone or social media). The company values its customers and seeks feedback from senior management and others.
MARKETING & UPCOMING PLANS
The company sells solutions in four phases: Launch, Communication, Authentication, and Interaction. Go Green Warehouses introduces customers after 5-10 meetings before closing deals. Moreover, customers are looking for reliable companies so continuous meetings make the relationship strong. After the first visit, the company builds trust through smart and persistent communication.
To simplify transactions, Go Green Warehouses will automate warehouse operations, including 100% digital customer service. The company aims to be the preferred agricultural warehousing company in the next 5 years and achieves storage volumes up to 100 Lakh MT with a CM portfolio of at least Rs. 15000 Cr in two years. Go Green Warehouses aims to operate at all major ports, processing clusters, and cargo hubs worldwide. It includes India and other countries that need CM and warehousing. The company’s micro-warehouse programs target villages, while black shop operations, cold chain logistics, and 3PL cities target.
VISION & MISSION OF GO GREEN WAREHOUSES
Mr. Santosh wants an autonomous team. He believes that a competitive founder makes his company more competitive and aggressive. Additionally, he has seen many data-driven companies make metrics-driven judgments. Mr. Sahu improves his and the team’s skills while making his business competitive and trustworthy. The culture of Go Green Warehouses has changed the most. Mr. Santosh tries to change the company’s mindset on feedback and continuous progress, which his team needs. To develop the group, he has spent more time with each member. In addition, it will carefully manage the careers of the top 50 employees to enhance ownership. He is also working to facilitate indoor and outdoor technology that doubles the company’s profits and market share. As the company grows, he wants to invest in startups to keep learning.
ADVICE TO THE READERS
Startups should avoid investing early because cash flow is very important,” Mr. Sahu said. Capital should be used for expansion, not for maintaining the business. Teams, technology, and time are key assets that must be put to good use. Ultimately, business growth requires patience and persistence.
