Meet Anil Gupta who took his father’s Krishna Electrical Industries business to the next level with Rs 5000 crore turnover.
Anil Gupta joined his father’s business when he was just 21. Krishna Electrical Industries has since significantly grown and now clocks a Rs 5000 crore turnover.
Anil Gupta joined his father’s electrical wire and cable business in 1980, after completing his M Com from Dr Zakir Hussain College in Delhi, when Krishna Electrical Industries (KEI) had a revenue of just Rs 70 lakh.
Their sole factory was located in Bara Hindu Rao, Old Delhi, and employed approximately 120 workers.
KEI Industries has developed into a Rs 5000 crore revenue public corporation with 2200 workers, 21 offices in India, and exports to 45 countries, including Singapore, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Dubai, and The Gambia, four decades later.
Anil has grown the company from producing rubber coated wires for household appliances and wiring to producing all types of low tension, high tension, and extra high voltage power cables up to 400kv.
He has expanded on the foundation that his father, Dayanand Gupta, laid.”
“During the summer vacations, I would spend more time in the factory,” Anil recalls of his involvement with the company founded by his father in 1948.
“At a young age, I delivered things to customers, drove my father about for meetings, and learnt about the machinery and operations.”
In 1980, he was 21 years old and started working for the company.”
“Up until that point, we were solely producing rubber coated wires for household appliances and electrical wires for house wiring.”
KEI was a partnership firm back then, and his father’s brother was also a partner.
In the 1980s, they also founded another company called Paramount Cable Corporation.
They started building a new facility in Okhla, Delhi, in 1983, and it opened in 1985.
The combined revenue of Paramount and KEI in the same year was Rs 3.5 crore.
In 1986, KEI began manufacturing copper alloy rods and cables and began supplying thermal power plants and refineries that need such wires.
By 1990, their revenue had surpassed Rs 18 crore.
They began supplying cables to GAIL, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and other oil refineries in 1991.
The same year, they established a manufacturing unit for aluminium cable in Okhla.
Anil’s father died two years later, in 1993, but the company went public the following year.
KEI continued to expand its manufacturing capabilities, establishing factories in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, where they began producing stainless steel wire and copper cables.
Bhiwadi gradually evolved into the company’s production hub.
“It’s a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Delhi.”
I visit there three times per week.
“At Bhiwadi, we have a large team of personnel that manage production and sales,” Anil says.
“In 1999, I learned that Dadra and Nagar Haveli was planning tax breaks for industrialists, so we chose to establish a factory in Silvassa, which became operational in 2001.”
“While it may appear that Anil’s entrepreneurial journey was simple, he admits that he encountered difficulties, particularly between 1998 and 2002.
“I had just invested in our Silvassa factory, but the economy was in a slump, and both sales and profits were down.
I began converting the company from B2B to B2C “he claims.
“Today, we have a diversified product and customer portfolio.
We attempt to meet the demands for wires in the building business, electricity sector, railway sector, and house wiring.
Those trying years taught me to diversify and not put all of my eggs in one basket.
“In 2006, another facility was established in Bhiwadi, and three years later, another unit was established in Chopanki, 5 kilometres from Bhiwadi.”
More units were built during the next few years.
In 2010, the company’s revenue surpassed Rs 1000 crore.
They were now making stainless steel wires, as well as copper and aluminium wires.
Anil attended Ramjas School in Delhi before pursuing B Com and M Com degrees from Dr Zakir Hussain College, which is affiliated with Delhi University.
“I used to play cricket and table tennis with my mates at school.”
My parents handed me a modest sum of money as pocket money.
“In school, we used to get 50 paisa per day, and in college, we got Rs 10 per day,” Anil recalls from his childhood.
“My parents were very rigorous about how we spent our money and kept a close eye on our whereabouts.”
I was not a reader.
“In order to gain information, I examined books.”
“I had a strong interest in general knowledge and would read the newspaper and books on economics, geography, and management on a regular basis.”
Archana Gupta, Anil’s wife, is involved in the firm and manages the HR department and administration.
“She has supported me in both good and bad times.”
She is constantly encouraging to me.
“I usually contact her before beginning a new factory,” Anil explains, waxing effusive about his wife.
The couple has one son, Akshit Diviaj Gupta, an Amity University BBA graduate who joined the company roughly five years ago.
His wife, Vedika, who has a master’s degree in law, was also a part of the company, but she is now on leave to raise their child.
Anil enjoys spending time with his family and going on vacation with them.
Anil’s future ambitions include doubling production capacity through the construction of a greenfield factory.
“By 2026, we hope to have a revenue of Rs 10,000 crore.”
