Tropic of Cancer is one of the primary latitudes traversing through India. Additionally, we are just a thousand kilometres away from the Equator, making India one of the hottest places that has prolonged summer season. While earlier, people considered air cooling a luxury, with the increasing temperatures it has become a necessity.
Time and again, India is exposed to heat waves owing to which India is a very big market for the air-cooling business. With the attempt to capitalize this opportunity, Vijay Shree Foundation was incepted in 1998. An ISO 9001: 2000 certified company which is among the leading manufacturers of Iron and Fibre coolers all over the Rajasthan since last 20 years, Vijay Shree Coolers boasts of dealership and distributorship of 22 districts all over the Rajasthan.
Rahul Sharda, Director of Vijay Shree Coolers was brought up in a traditional Marwari family that had a business mindset. Rahul has been exposed to business from a very tender age owing to his father. Being born and brought up in one of the hottest regions of India, Rahul saw his family devote themselves to the business of air cooling for over three decades. It was then, he decided to refine the ‘unorganized businesses into an organized one with the skills and expertise that he had gathered through this education and experience.
Before Rahul joined this industry, he had witnessed the entire hierarchy of business in this segment to be unorganized from the start till the end. Here is where Rahul made the difference. He created a framework of blockchain which guided his work to be more hassle-free. He did not just want to be the seller of an air-cooler to a customer, he envisioned to create an experience of air-cooling via Vijay Shree for the end-user by fostering a relationship built on trust.
Rahul began as a director in 2013. By then, Vijay Shree had reached the customer volume of 4 million. However, they lacked the framework of being organized. Rahul began initiating a formal frame work and his vision was to reach every home in a couple of years. Rahul was the man behind Vijay Shree 2.0 which had refurbished itself to serve its customer base. Vijay Shree rebooted its journey with a new engine, more fuel, innovative marketing strategies, smarter products and a pipeline to connect directly with its end users. With this approach, Vijay Shree’s repeat customer base has reached 135 million and has not looked back.
The Invention
Today is the era of technology. AI is integrated in every industry. Vijay Shree ideated developing an automated desert air cooler. Though this task was cumbersome, Vijay Shree was successful in designing and developing India’s first internet enable desert air cooler. This cooler can be controlled with your voice and also has a climate control feature which can be modified as per the needs of the rooms. This invention opened new doors for Vijay Shree to position unique products in the market with enhanced features. Rahul played a pivotal role in this development and also ensured the integration of technology with manufacturing happened under one roof to match the benchmark products in the market.
He envisions to uplift the underrated product – air cooler in which is a forbidden necessity of every house into an experience of comfort and relaxation. Rahul has a clear vision. It is to ensure that Vijay Shree is a part of every home in India. In order to make this a reality, Vijay Shree has entered a MoU with the Government of Rajasthan for setting up an industry 4.0 platform plant for the production of air coolers. This will also lead to the employment and skill development of between 150 to 200 people and ensure every house has a cooler.
Vijay Shree’s purpose is to make daily life simpler and more wonderful for people throughout the world by creating air coolers that improve the quality of life by offering them new solutions.
India’s Air Cooler Market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14.6% during 2021-27. With the rising middle-class population, increasing heatwave, growing work from home culture, better availability of electricity in villages and a comparative price edge of the air coolers over the air conditioners, the air cooler market forecast is expected to show positive growth in the future. Rahul intends to seize this opportunity and leverage it for Vijay Shree.
In this pursuit of excellence, Rahul’s role model are both his parents. Both of them have contributed significantly to his achievements, yet kept him grounded. Vijay Shree is the emerging leader in air cooling. Rahul would advise other entrepreneurs to never settle for less, to keep persevering and try different paths even if one fails.
