Joy Made 3 Crores In 15 Years. Then In 2024, They Made 575 Crores

In 2003, @Joy (RSH Global) was 15 years old, doing INR 3 Crores in revenue making talcum powder.

This year, they’re set to do INR 575 Crores.

So, what did they do differently? Simple - they stayed in the fight longer than most others. 35+ years at that!

Before we get to our story though, I just want to ask you a quick favour. This email is only possible because of this one bald dude whose videos are the first thing I watch after I wake up, and the last thing I pay attention to before going to sleep,

What can I say, he just energizes your mornings, and relaxes your evenings. If you caught my drift, you already know who I’m talking about :)

Go watch this video of #shantanudeshpande and @BombayShavingCo with Mr. Sunil Agarwal - founder of RSH Global, and the hero in today’s story (if you thought of anyone else, you need God haha)

Okay, now back to our story

Dream Talcum started as a simple talcum powder company in 1986, right after Sunil graduated from college.

Dream talcum would later become RSH Global in 1988, and Sunil would spend the next 15 YEARS growing RSH as a powder company (a recurring theme, as we’ll see), till 2003, where the company was doing 3 Crores in revenue.

Then, in 2003, they shifted their operations from Kolkata to Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, for various economic incentives.

TLDR; The government was setting up new Economic Zones and was encouraging businesses to set up shop in several new locations across the country - Baddi being one of them.

Here’s what happened for Joy and Mr. Sunil there:

• 2003: 3 Crores in Revenue, 50 Lakh in overhead costs from setting up shop in Baddi

• 2003: Joy launches new products to support overhead cost expenses at new plant.

• 2003-2011: Joy launches 35 new products into the market, is doing 51 Crores in Revenue

• 2011: Joy launches it’s very first advertising campaign (22 YEARS after launching its business - interesting)

• 2020: Joy starts advertising online as a distribution channel, does 147 Crores in Revenue

• 2024: Joy is projected to make 575 Crores in revenue

If you cannot see a pattern here, it’s because we’ve all grown up in the internet era - we haven’t been tuned to understand one of the most crucial components that makes Legacy businesses so difficult to beat as a modern startup - TIME in the market.

One of the biggest takeaways from Mr. Sunil’s journey of 35+ years in the skincare industry is that he has more years in the market than the average age of most of us reading this post.

Here’s more of my takeaways:

#1 Nothing will substitute a strong product

According to its website, Joy is the 6th largest consumer skincare brand in India, but to me, there’s really only two others that stand out:

• Unilever

• Nivia

• Joy

During the growth of Dream Talcum and RSH, Mr. Sunil found that Indians absolutely LOVED talcum from Kolkata.

And so he made it really easy for people all across the country to be able to access it.

Strong product meets hungry crowd. Figure out pricing and packaging and you’re set - which is exactly what Sunil did. FOR FIFTEEN YEARS

#2 Know Your Customer

Look at that interview again, and notice how Sunil has his company’s numbers at the tip of his fingers.

Facewash? Oh, we do 100 Crores of it.

Revenue from online channels the last four years? 2 Crores, then 18-20 Crores, then 40 Crores, and this year we did 100 Crores.

And this did not come to him when his company was doing Crores in revenue. He was doing this from Day 1 of his business.

Knowing your numbers comes from knowing your customers, and Sunil knew exactly what his customers were buying.

How? Simple, for the first 15 years of his business, Sunil actually travelled across the country selling Joy talcum to his retailers.

How many of us have listened to the last 100 sales calls our team has made? This man did it for 15 years! And then he repeated that at scale for another 20 years.

#3 Play The Long Game

Sunil believes in perpetuity - the fact that something could last forever, if you build it with the right foundations.

And the first ingredient he wishes everyone knows is that it will take time.

Of course, you can do it fast. People do achieve it fast.

Lekin Market na, wakt ke saat aapko sab sikha deta hai

[But the market will teach you everything with time]

I love Shantanu’s addition to this section:

People underestimate the power of marination in a business.

And that’s so f*cking true!

The secret to a 600 Crore business is so simple it blows your mind:

• Build a solid product that customers LOVE

• Rebuild the product based on customers’ changing demands and needs.

• Introduce more products into the ecosystem of current product to improve the overall experience

• Rinse and repeat for 35+ years

Simple. Not easy. But then again, it’s just taking it all one day at a time

How hard can it be :’)

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