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Volume 3–Issue 3 M ay /J u n e 2 0 1 9
Success Story | SONAM CLOCK LTD
How Sonam Clock Struck One Jayesh Shah, Founder, MD and CEO, Sonam Clock Ltd not only talks about his fascinating entrepreneurial journey into creating one of India’s biggest wall-clock companies, he also shares unique insights on India’s clock-making industry, and the top challenge that stops India from becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.
S
onam Clock’s is a fascinating Indian success story. Starting in 1996 with a manufacturing and assembling capacity of 250 clocks per day, Sonam Clock Ltd today makes 10,000 wall clocks and 50,000 clock movement (short for clock-movement machines) a day. It is the biggest Indian wallclock manufacturer (by volume) and one of the biggest Indian wall clock exporters with sales to more than 27 countries across four continents. The company, based in the ceramic- and clockmaking industrial hub of Morbi, Gujarat, has an installed capacity of over 72 lakh clocks and 240 lakh clock-movements per year. The company has a countrywide reach through a network of 150 distributors and over 35,000 retailers. Presenting excerpts from an engaging conversation DMI's editor Aanand Pandey had with Jayesh Shah, Founder, MD and CEO, Sonam Clock Ltd.
Jayesh Shah, Founder, MD and CEO, Sonam Clock Ltd
Can you share with us your journey from the time of inception of the company to the current state of business and operations? We started our business from Mumbai in 1986 in a ten-by-ten-feet room, manufacturing 10 clocks per day with 20 employees – 10 people manufactured the clocks and the other 10 sold them. The earnings were reinvested into input purchase and clock assembly. Eventually, we hired more people and purchased a bigger setup. By 1995, we had a 35-member staff that assembled 2,000 wall clocks a day. By that time, our brand had become wellrecognized in Mumbai and we wanted to expand to more markets. We relocated to Morbi for manufacturing and started from a 250 sq.ft. facility. That was a time when the town of Morbi was known more for making plastic cabinets. It only had one complete clockmaker, Ajanta. Our vision was to equal Ajanta's manufacturing scale.
