Ms. Pallavi Singh recently took up India Brand Licensing for White-Westinghouse. She has also been felicitated with the award -'She-preneur to watch for in 2020', by the Entrepreneur India magazine. Pallavi is a fun-loving and fiercely independent womenpreneur.

She started her journey in the e-commerce sector back in the year 2013, when her idea to go online with SPPL's first global licensed brand Kodak TV was looked upon with critique and scepticism. Mother to a young toddler, Pallavi has been bringing her baby to work since he was 45 days old.

She prepared a nursery for him in office before joining back so she never felt she was not giving time to her child and at the same time, she did not want work to suffer, since SPPL was still in the expansion stage.

SPPL today, is the country's largest consumer technology manufacturing (OEM) , standing at a valuation of USD 120 MIllion and the only firm to obtain an official license from Google to Make Android TV's in India.

About Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd. (SPPL):

SPPL is a manufacturing concern established in 1990 with its Head Office in Noida. Its initial business was plastic injection moulding which then graduated to the manufacturing of CRT TVs and LED tvs on a date. We were one of the largest manufacturers of CRT TV cabinets in the 90's and early 00's. Today it stands as one of India's foremost OEMs in CRT and LED Television makers.With 3 manufacturing plants in India located in Noida, Una and Jammu. SPPL has an employee strength of over 1000 across India and is expanding.

Currently the company's leading brands are  -Thomson Tv (under licensing contract with Europe's leading technology Technicolor SA), White-Westinghouse (America's leading consumer appliance brand), Kodak and Blaupunkt are available in 18,000 pin codes and has a service network in 19,000 pin codes. This was not done overnight, and in fact, it took an enormous effort to establish this kind of a presence within two years, despite Thomson being an affordable TV brand. This has worked to the company's advantage, especially in establishing a better connection with its consumers despite being an online-only brand. So, the company's ecosystem is its greatest strength .

Before Thomson's launch as a key player in the smart TV sector in the year 2018, latest technologies came at a higher cost and were crowded with made in China, Vietnam or Taiwanese goods. Since its launch, in just a matter of 2 years the brand has consistently released numerous models and changed the game, with its value proposition. The 30-year-old manufacturing firm SPPL, has always been a firm believer of 'Make in India'.  The company has always resonated with the Government's mission and supported the 'Local about Vocal' sentiments. Thomson TVs are made for India, by India and are customized as per the ever-changing tastes and preferences of the Indian consumer. The firm is completely backward integrated and is one of the fastest growing Indian manufacturing, that has obtained an official license from Google to make Android TVs in India.

Pallavi Singh in an email interaction with SME WORLD:

Kindly describe your entrepreneurial journey over the years.

My entrepreneurial journey over the years has been an amazing ride. We started an entire industry from scratch, that of bringing in franchises in India for completely new product categories. It was a big move to convince and have the confidence of globally acclaimed, trusted brands to come to India with a complete overhaul, which was to be executed and planned by us entirely.

It is a 24*7 job to be an entrepreneur and ensure that the company is considered as a leader in the industry across categories. The path has been nothing short of exciting and creative. This journey also gave us the opportunity to have allies who are our colleagues and employees- our extended family that is; who work equally hard to stay on top of their game and have brought SPPL to the height that it is at today.

Entrepreneurship for me allowed me to have a free hand in experimenting to create products and strategies that have not been done before. When we started with Kodak and Thomson, the online shopping market had only begun taking off but for very different sectors; we were one of the firsts who were selling SMART TVs online across India.

Entrepreneurship has helped me learn and grow as a person. Although my husband and I work together, we handle completely different aspects of the business and are accountable to each other with respect to our areas of supervision. Being able to call the shots, taking feedback and putting it into action has truly helped me grow as an individual.   

What kind of challenges she faced along the way and how did you manage?

Being an entrepreneur is in itself a challenging journey. Our company goal had always been to be at the top and that required us to take a lot of risks. Most worked but some also failed and as a business owner it is important to quickly focus on the learnings from it rather than remaining disappointed.

What are the advantages or disadvantages of being a woman entrepreneur in India?

Being an entrepreneur in general is hard. We start ventures to not only serve the audience but also to make it successful and grow it into a bigger company than originally imagined. As a woman, the biggest advantage of being a business owner is the novelty we bring to the profession. Historically, women were always left out of the workforce and that enabled only certain ideas to thrive. Now with the increasing participation of women in the workforce, we have more ways of doing business coming into fore.

Women are leading many male dominated industries too.

A disadvantage to being a woman entrepreneur is the hard work that goes into building credibility as one. While it is already difficult for a newbie, we ladies have to put in more effort into doing so considering the labels that are attached to us.

What is the future of manufacturing in general especially when the Indian market is threatened by the overseas brand?

The government has put in place necessary compliances and is now investing into huge projects that will further manufacturing in India. We have always had the capacity to maximize the potential that manufacturing allows in our country but what was missing is the infrastructure and knowhow. The entire globe was dependent on one country for all their manufacturing needs and when the pandemic started we all faced the brunt of it. While demand for screen-based gadgets skyrocketed, the supply fell short and thus prices also hiked along with that of logistics'.

Earlier manufacturing was centralized, but that won't be the case anymore given the lessons we all have learnt. While the threat of overseas brands still looms, countries like India have now taken serious steps forward to establish state of the art manufacturing hubs. The government has also banned the import of CBUs for ACs and refrigerators.

The Indian manufacturing set up is definitely set to grow because now the private sector will be working hand in hand with the government to do so. The investments made and required in the future will be monumental, but we are also seeing serious interest by global companies to set shop in India for the same.

What is the prime purpose of Super Plastronics and describe its manufacturing portfolio?

Super Plastronics Private Limited has always been in the game to manufacture some of the best quality products with much investment and thought into R&D and talent, to ensure that we have the outputs possible. While doing this at scale, it has also allowed us to really work on ensuring that we are able to offer our products at the best prices possible. And hence our sole purpose has been to provide the best in class products at accessible rates.

Indian is a fast developing consumer market, we have the largest internet generation in the world. We see this as an opportunity as a make in india company, to understand our customer preferences and better our new launches by custmosing as much as possible for our audience.  

Our manufacturing portfolio includes TVs for 4 globally acclaimed brands and White Westing House & Thomson washing machines.

What is the road ahead for Super Plastronics?

We plan to expand our portfolio to include more categories of products across brands. We would like for SPPL to be known as a household name for its quality products. 

What is her advice to the young women aspiring to be entrepreneurs?

Being a mother full-time and also working and building our portfolios from scratch has been quite a journey for me. These are two very important things in my life and the only challenge is changing my role at the drop of a hat. I always have to be on my feet and ensure that I don't lose out on either capacity because of the other. While it was challenging managing both, perseverance has kept the ship sailing for me.

It is important to keep your ultimate goal as the focus and the rest falls in place as you come closer to it.