Bonita

 

Interview of Umang Srivastava , Joint Managing Director,

Casa Brands India

Umang Srivastava is the Jt. Managing Director of Casa Brands India Pvt.Ltd and he is also the Joint Managing Director of Aristos Creations Pvt.Ltd.

 Umang along with Neeraj Mittal co-founded Casa Brands India Pvt Ltd, under which the brand “Bonita” was launched in 2010. The concept of Bonita was born when he realized that the Indian women are deprived of good products to help them organize their home better and also are missing good quality home utility products needed for to make their life easier. Since he was already working with major international brands in Laundry Care, Storage and Organising category for their export business through their parent company, Aristos Creations, Casa Brands was able to introduce similar products for the Indian customer under “Bonita”. Today, Bonita is available across all major housewares stores across India and the brand is gaining leadership position in this category and is growing at more than 100% every year.

 

Umang has more than 15 years of Experience in Business & Marketing Strategy, Product Development, and specializes in start-up businesses.

 He started his career with Trident Group (now ranked amongst the top 5 global terry towel giants) in 1997 when the terry towel unit was being setup and played an important part in building the towel business at Trident to US$ 40 million in 5 years. He worked for 7 years in Trident Group.After Trident, he was associated in setting up the art d’inox division of Jindal Stainless, specially the Export business. He joined art d’inox in 2004 when the division had just started and was a part of the key management team to grow the business to US$ 15 mn in 3 years. Art d’inox was into manufacturing and selling of designer Stainless Steel products for household use. When he left art d’inox, they had an impressive clientele all over the world and were exporting products under their own brand to 19 countries. He left art d’inox to start Aristos Group in 2007. 

 Aristos Group is today a preferred partner for various international brands and retailers and is responsible for export of more than US$ 20 mn worth of household products from India.

 Umang also has immense and Sound Technical knowledge both in Textiles, Plastics and Metals including Raw Materials, Processes, Machines, Technical feasibility and Costing.

Umang holds an Engineering degree from one of India’s most prestigious institutes, Delhi College of Engineering and has done Post graduation in Business Economics from Delhi University.

 

Bonita – The Brand’s journey so far

 

Bonita comes from the house of Casa Brands India Pvt. Ltd. Bonita means beautiful in Spanish. The brand was envisioned to help Indian consumers experience convenience and comfort in their household work. Bonita is an exclusive name for home utility products and is simply the best choice when it comes to Pre and Post laundry solutions, home organizers and also perfect storage solutions. Apart from being attractive, the most important aspect of Bonita products is their unsurpassable quality. This attribute comes from their parent company Aristos Creations, which is the preferred partner for all major American and European brands in this category.

 Bonita is one of the most appreciated, favored and purchased brand in the home ware & home utility segment across India. Ask any women, why Bonita? And she says - Bonita understands the needs of today’s women and therefore all their products have similar attributes – they are spacious, beautiful, comfortable, smart yet simple. Women all over have loved these exclusive home utility product collection. The Bonita women are proud to have these elite products in their home which elevated them to the status of a modern woman and a better lifestyle. As the products are contemporary, reliable, aspirational and up market, they appeal to today’s modern society and reflects a better lifestyle.

 Today, Bonita is available across all major housewares stores across India and the brand is gaining leadership position in this category and is growing at more than 100% every year.

 The main category of the Brand as mentioned is Pre and post laundry solutions, organizers and storage solution products. The Product line includes Ironing Boards with child safety lock and multi height adjustments , table top ironing boards, laundry hampers with wheels , accessories and shoes organizers in many different sizes and prints , multi positional cloth drying stands, Balcony dryers and many more ironing and dying accessories . The products have been getting tremendous response from the consumers for its utility, designs and quality.

 

Bonita’s exclusive range of Ironing Boards are doing very well across Indian retail and Institutional segment and the group is also working as a partner for all major brands across US and Europe in the laundry care category. Most of these brands are brand leaders in the respective countries viz. Polder in USA, Minky in UK, Rayen in Spain, etc and the company is supplying them a big range of ironing boards, drying racks etc from India. Currently the team is making about 80,000 ironing boards per month and are the biggest in this category today. The Brand have specialists who understand this product, more than anyone else, and having worked with all the major brands across the world, they have access to all the major technologies and quality products. These ironing boards are made in a state of the art factory having German powder coating lines and other modern machinery.

 

Bonita has charted out aggressive marketing plan also. The Delhi-headquartered company is now planning to ramp up its presence to over 1000 home utility and house ware stores across the country and also planning to open Exclusive Bonita Outlets across India, in both metros and tier II cities. They have already initiated finalizing their Franchise outlets across India and the response has been tremendous. A lot of excitement has been seen amongst many to be a part of this largely growing organization.  Those interested can contact them for details. With an investment amount of Rs.5 to 6 lakhs, the brand promises to bank only profits for its investors.

 

The company has also earmarked a marketing budget of Rs 25 crore and will be undertaking intense above-the-line and below-the-line campaigns targeted at both product promotion and educating consumers about household safety and smart space management. They are also planning to launch their Television Commercial soon and the Media Plan includes TV, Radio and an aggressive Print Campaign across India. They are also working on a strong digital presence through Social Media platform like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. The brand is also active at digital advertising which have helped them grow their presence across the nation digitally.

 

Bonita was founded and developed by Umang Srivastava and Neeraj Mittal who have more than 40+ years of experience between themselves. Umang has more than 15 years of experience in Business & Marketing Strategy along with Product Development and has worked with art d’ inox division of Jindal stainless & Trident Group and Neeraj Mittal who has 20+ years of experience in the Sourcing industry and has worked in world Class automotive organizations like Ford Tractor, Denso, etc, and his last stint was with the world’s biggest Home Improvement retailer, IKEA of Sweden. 

 

The company, that has recently joined hands with Polder Industries Inc., USA, a leader in upscale consumer home goods, is also mulling to bring a few more global brands in the country. 

Bonita has also launched its e-commerce website, www.casabrands.in, with online shopping facility they are offering a wide range of exclusive home utility products and has been extremely successful with it. All major credit and debit cards are accepted, and the company provides free shipping anywhere in the country. Many new attractive offers and plans are also introduced by the brand from time to time for the online buyers.