"Our DNA is of Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Resell," Hitendra Chaturvedi, GreenDust

How has GreenDust's journey been in India so far?

GreenDust was incorporated in 2008 at the height of recession. Starting a company during recession taught us that our value proposition had to be strong, quantifiable, and measurable for us to build a sustainable model. Starting a company during recession was trial by fire for us and in hind sight was the best thing that ever happened to us.

How is GreenDust different from its competitors?
GreenDust is a brand by Reverse Logistics Company Private Limited (RLC) that is essentially a comprehensive reverse logistics company. In this process, GreenDust has pioneered a unique and disruptive business model to provide cost effective products to value conscious customers through a hybrid offline and online model utilizing reverse logistics as a sourcing engine. The company creates huge value for retailers, OEMs, and e-tailers by efficiently managing their reverse logistics. On the other end its brand GreenDust provides value conscious Indian customers a smarter alternative to buying new products.

Third and most important, GreenDust's DNA is that of Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Resell. By bringing them back to life from the verge of being scrapped and bringing them lovingly back to just like new condition and providing them a new home we have decreased the amount of pollutants that would gone into the environment. There are many who do small pieces of the Reverse Supply Chain but players who look at Reverse logistics holistically to provide an end-to-end solution are few and far between. It is still highly unorganized as this requires investment in systems, people, infrastructure and processes.

Please throw some light on the latest launches from the house of GreenDust?
GreenDust offers products in varied categories like laptops, mobiles, refrigerators, ACs, washing machines, digital cameras, LCDs, LEDs, mixers, irons, cook tops, blenders, heaters, personal care products, health care, and many more product categories. We sell the refurbished products of brands like LG, Sony, Haier, Electrolux, Samsung, LG, Videocon, Onida, Panasonic, Phillips, HTC, Toshiba, Blackberry, Apple etc. through our alternate sales channel.

We take the rejected/ defective/unsold/ returned products from the OEMs, refurbish them, provide a year's warranty from our side, and finally sell them as factory seconds through the brand, GreenDust. Think of GreenDust similar to an ISI mark. The product will still be a factory seconds of LG, Samsung, Sony but when it goes through the strict inspection process by GreenDust any small problem is fixed using genuine parts from the company and put a ‘certified GreenDust' sticker on it. So the customer can be assured that they are getting a branded product that is certified by GreenDust.

What is your future plans for the India market and globally?
We are the #1 reverse supply chain company in India today. We intend to solidify our lead by providing our business partners and Indian consumers with increasing value added offerings. Our intent is to go international soon and become one of the few technology companies that were incubated in India and went onto become an MNC. The next goal is to become the #1 reverse logistics company for the emerging markets. Our goal is to become a $1 bn company in 5 years.

What are your focus areas in this financial year?
We have huge growth plans in the coming years. The market for returned goods is disorganized in all the sectors. We are currently been able to organize the reverse supply chains in the sectors like IT, Appliances, electronics, and mobiles. We have plans to foray in to different verticals and categories to expand the market of refurbished products. This will help the companies to manage their reverse supply and will enable customers to get good certified products at cheaper rates.
We are planning to reach out to many more OEMs, retailers, and e-tailers and convince them of the value that we can create for them, and that we can manage their returns. We are also planning to expand into more stores and increase our online presence by adding more dealers, franchisees and value added stores. We have the aspiration to go international.

What are the channel strategies that you follow, specially pertaining to the India market?
Our channel strategy is aimed at two segments - exclusive GreenDust franchise stores, and resellers. We have over 120 franchisee stores mainly in tier-2 and 3 cities and growing as we expand our brands and categories.
Our reseller channel does not put up a dedicated GreenDust store but works with us to sell our products in areas where a GreenDust store may not be feasible. Our channel partners have handsome incentives based on slabs/targets they achieve. As we grow rapidly we intend to handsomely reward loyalty and revenue growth from our channel partners through more aggressive programs.

Since all products come with 1 year GreenDust warranty, both franchisee and reseller are rest assured that customer is not left hanging after the sale. This also pleases the OEM as their brand also does not get diluted.

GreenDust recently received Reverse Logistics Operational Excellence award, what do you have to say about that?
This award is a testament to the growing importance and recognition of reverse logistics as an integral part of closed loop supply networks in India. I am happy to see that reverse logistics' strategic importance to the growth and profitability to e-commerce, retail, and OEMs is being recognized at the board level.

As an organized, trustworthy, national partner providing full spectrum of services across the reverse supply chain, GreenDust combines proprietary technology, services and domain experience allowing companies to beat global supply chain benchmarks of efficiency and productivity.
This award will further motivate the entire GreenDust team to not only strengthen the position as market leaders in India but also emerge as fore-runners in the emerging markets.

What about GreenDust's focus on channels? Any channel-centric activities in the pipeline?
GreenDust has strong focus on its channel partners. The incentives are based on the slabs and targets they achieve. We strongly emphasize to our partners for strong commitments towards mutual growth. We intend to handsomely reward loyalty and revenue growth from our channel partners through more aggressive programs.

Ranjeeta Bhattacharjee
(ranjeetab@cybermedia.co.in)