Dr. Mahesh Gupta Chairman Kent RO

Dr. Mahesh Gupta, the Founder of Kent RO has truly putted his 1000% in establishing an enterprise like Kent RO.

1. AN INSPIRATIONAL STORY

2. OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY The company has its manufacturing base in Roorkee (Uttarakhand), spread across 4,00,000 sq.ft and has an annual production capacity of 1 million units.  It sells more than 2,25,000 RO purifiers every year and holds around 40% market share in water purifiers. Kent is today also competing with international brands, outbidding them on basis of its technology, innovation, better service, well equipped distribution system and good branding. The inspiration for it all has been its livewire founder and chairman.

3. A MAN WITH DREAMS AND SELF BELIEF: Mr. Mahesh Gupta the man behind Kent Ro was the first member who dared to choose business over job in his family. An IIT graduate from Kanpur in Mechanical engineering and alumnus of Indian institute of Petroleum, Dehradun. Mahesh started off his career working with Indian Oils in the sales department in 1978 .

4. THE ROAD TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP Mahesh decided to quit after working for seven years and refining his skills. He believed in taking risks and wanted to work on his own ideas . His journey of entrepreneur started in 1985, from a small room in his house with just Rs. 20,000 which he had saved from his job with IOCL. His first invention was in the field of petroleum conservation instrument where he earned fame and half a dozen patents to his credit.

5. STORY BEHIND THE INVENTION OF ‘KENT RO WATER PURIFIER’ His turning Point came with the establishment of KENT RO SYSTEM in the year 1998, when jaundice gripped his son in a posh colony of South Delhi. Knowing that jaundice is a water-borne disease, Gupta researched and analyzed all the available water purifier in the market . The purifiers available in the market in those days worked on ultraviolet (UV) technology, which kills bacteria in the water. He knew this was not good enough since the water we drink also contains many dissolved impurities, which cannot be treated with this technology. He wanted to develop a water purifier that would also take care of the undesirable dissolved elements, while recognizing and retaining the good minerals. 

6. DIFFICULTIES FACED BY DR. MAHESH GUPTA Mahesh in the consequent six months began to work on different models and failed. At last, he discovered reverse osmosis(RO) technology which gave him the assurance of clean drinking water. He then installed this set up at his place and the successful results encouraged him to go commercial with it. With an investment of Rs 5 lakh that he was able to save from his previous venture, he started out. The garage of his house was the office of Kent RO. He bought equipment and installation machines. The other purifiers in the market were priced at Rs 5,000 but Kent RO came around at the price of Rs 20,000 initially as they were providing with superior technology, unlike others which made the market price fair for the product. They did not have the budget for advertising or other promotional campaigns. So, brand awareness and recall were nil.

7. STRUGGLING YEARS OF SALES In the first year, sales were a dismal 100 units, and they were even accused of overcharging by some customers . Then, In the first five years, Gupta had found it difficult to convince customers to buy his product because of Aquaguard (Eureka Forbes), whose UV purifiers literally ruled the market with their over 70% market share. They also cost five-times less than Gupta’s RO purifiers.  But the very fact that the purifiers available in the market did not remove dissolved impurities like arsenic, fluoride or pesticides made it Kent’s USP, as its product did remove them. “So initially, for about 6-7 years they tried to sell there products without any major success, and without much branding or publicizing effort.  People were buying their products but not in any large quantities.

8. WORD OF MOUTH HELPED DR. MAHESH GUPTA Thankfully, there customers realized the superiority of the product and sales started picking up through word of mouth publicity by users.  By 2001, they had quite suddenly hit the sweet spot of the potential market, with customers beginning to like the products and revenue generation showing some upward movement . He ploughed back the money he earned from the sales and initiated a brand campaign.  They also put up products at retail outlets and stores that specialized in kitchenware, providing shoppers the opportunity to try the product and make on-the-spot decisions.

9. BRAND ENDORSEMENT They needed a brand ambassador – someone who is already a well-known face and personality, who could easily slip into the role of a mother with ease.  Mahesh managed to convince the dream girl of Bollywood – Hema Malini, to endorse his brand. She was ideal for endorsing the brand as she was a housewife, popular, and appealed to the ladies, but it was not easy convincing Hema Malini. When approached in 2005, she agreed to endorse it only after using the product.

10. BRAND AMBASSADORS In 2005, when the turnover was a mere 30-40 Crore rupees, they had no money to spend on television commercials.   So they started with using Hema’s photo in catalogues and print.  It was only in 2006 that they could create their first television commercial. This proved to be a turning-point for Kent, it gained in volumes.  It today sells around 450,000 units a year in a 1-million-a-year RO market.  With Hema, later joined by her daughters Esha and Ahana as well as there brand ambassadors, the entire perspective changed in 2006.  The revenues got a boost through their promotional campaigns and sales went up.  Business took off to speed, functioning at an altogether different level. 

11. HUMBLE INNOVATION NOW MAKES A TURNOVER OF RS 800 CR Besides the lack of financial self-sufficiency , a Rs.25 crore firm in 2005 to a Rs.800 crore giant in 2017, Kent RO has grown immensely to establish itself as a socially responsible & trustworthy healthcare products brand with the persona – ‘House of Purity’. Needless to say, trust develops only when the accredited certification bodies endorse the product / brand and when it comes to Kent, the company is accredited by laboratories of international repute like NSF, WQA and more recently by Government of India with an ISI certification. Moreover, the company has also been adjudged as the Best Domestic Water Purifier for 'Kent Superb' at UNESCO Water Digest Award.

12. CONCLUSION CUM MORAL An innovation is born out of necessity and a living example is the story of  Dr. Mahesh Gupta . Necessity is the mother of Invention he believes. As Mahesh Gupta did not have access to clean drinking and potable water at home in 1998, when his son got jaundice. Well, he could have bought one of those water purifiers available that time, but they weren’t good enough for him, he wanted something better. So he ended up building an all new water purifier for himself in his garage, using the then bleeding-edge Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology.  Then, having done that, the now sixty-something chairman of Kent RO Systems thought what was good for him would be good for others as well, and founded the company in 1999.  Since then, backed by a good product, global certifications, celebrity endorsements and customer acceptance, Kent has created a new category in water purifiers and has today emerged as a multicrore megabrand. 

13. Thank You