ROADTRIP: @ Rinku's Stockyard

It was almost six months ago, I had run into Rinku alias Rajan Agarwal, the youngest son of Prahlad Agarwal , the owner-promoter of Rinku Commercial Carriers in Chennai at an international automotive logistics conference. We were biting into our soft roti (Indian bread) and accompanying vegetable curry form our respective plates at the dining hall during lunch break. Between bites we exchanged notes – not business cards because he had already run out of them as it was the last day of the 3-day conference - on his company’s focus on 3PL operations for leading farm tractors in India. An invitation to visit his corporate office in Anand, in the western state of one of the most prosperous industrialized states of India viz., Gujrat. Anand is on the global map thanks to the milk revolution ushered in by a man called Dr V K Kurien 50 years ago through a cooperative effort of local cattle-breeding farmers.

Prahalad actually stumbled upon carting tractors by a sheer coincidence. In early late 1970s and early 1980s, he was providing logistics support to Gujrat based Elecon which was supplying Neyveli Lignite Corporation in the southern state of Tamil Nadu some parts on a regular basis. His fleet used to return empty through the 1400 km. It was a huge loss. That is when, he ran into Kiran Desai, Anand-based dealer for TAFE, a leading farm tractor manufacturer. Desai was bringing TAFE tractors on rail network which was time consuming, but the demand was huge given the agrarian base of the state. When Desai was approached by Agarwal about his proposal to cart TAFE from its manufacturing plant in the southern state of Kerala – hardly a few hundred kilometers from Neyveli Lignite Corporation, it was sweet music to Desai’s ears. Reasons were far too to seek. One, his supply would increase. And the frequency as well. Agarwal indicated he could bring in 2 tractors in every return trip: one lined up after another on the flat-bed rigid trailer. Desai was willing to shed out Rs.5,000 for each tractor. More tractors mean multiplies of Rs.5,000 for Agarwal.

Gradually the tally increased to six and seven tractors on each trip with minor modifications to his fleet. Since then AGarwal has not looked back. And Desai has joined Agarwal as Strategic Advisor long ago. Now they have Mahindra & Mahindra (the numero uno player in tractors segment), Swaraj (again owned by Mahindra group), Indo Farm etc besides TAFE.

On the first leg of my nationwide onroad trip on nothing but heavy commercial vehicles (trucks), a casual call from Halol (100 km from Anand) enabled me to touch base with Rinku who incidentally happen to be hardly 40 km away (Baroda) on a hot and sultry Sunday afternoon. He offered to pick me up and cart me to Anand to show me his ops. I did not refuse. In no time, I was a guest of Rinku.
His stockyard was marvelous. Liked uniformed soldiers lined up for daily drill, these gleaming machines greeted me. The turnaround time for these tractors is roughly 30 days. Each tractor approximately costs Rs.325,000 (US$1 = Rs.45). When Agarwal senior began business, the tractors used to cost Rs.10,000/-

Way back in the 1970s, Agarwal did a bit of car-carrier business – carting Fiat cars from Kurla, Bombay manufacturing plant to Chennai. This business was shut down following the closure of Fiat. Nonetheless, RCC did a bit of business with Maruti Suzuki before deciding not to be a small fish in a big pond, but be a significant player in a small pond. Last year, RCC carted 68000 tractors in toto.

The sixty plus Agarwal’s Rs.40 crore empire is managed by eldest son Ajay (finance and administration), Rinku (liaisoning and trouble shooting), son-in-law Vikram Daruka (operations) based out of Nagpur. With Kiran Desai providing strategic iinputs, the family owned business is on an even keel. He is not overtly ambitious. One thing is keen about is that he wants RCC to be absolutely debt free. As of now, the short term loans from banks constitute hardly 10% of the turnover.

Agarwal’s heart beats for the welfare of truck operators. He had financed many of his drivers to buy their own trucks and operate as a business. He has fought for drivers who were harassed by RTOs. He is ever ready to fight corruption on highways.