KRUTAN: Providing energy-efficient kitchen essentials for every home

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘kitchen’ or ‘appliances’ or ‘kitchen appliances’? The image that popped into your head would probably differ according to your age. If you’re a hormone induced teenager, you probably just rolled your eyes. If you’re someone in your roaring twenties you probably imagined your mom (or dad) experimenting with something in the kitchen or you mentally thought about a few personal disasters that you had yourself, incidents that made your friends or parents laugh their hearts out. A majority of readers would probably have fleeting images of burning stoves, pressure cookers, toasters and other assortments of pots and pans which made clanging noises.

The fact is, the Indian ‘home appliances’ market is so huge, and ‘kitchen appliances’ a business vertical that has scarcely seen innovation if any, and all the innovation has mostly focussed on the premium segment, where the prices are meant for the upper and upper middle-class families, a minor segment considering the potential of the ‘aspiring’ class, who seek similar comforts, but at a

price point tailored according to their needs. This is the segment whose needs, Krutan, a kitchen appliance brand based out of Bengaluru, seeks to address. We spoke to their founder recently and below are the excerpts from the interview.

 

 

Give a brief info about your startup?

KRUTAN is a kitchen appliance brand that aims at providing kitchen essentials for every home. It is the brand created by Sureseal Pvt. Ltd, to address the burgeoning home appliances Industry with the selling of affordable and energy-efficient products. The company operates in the Home & Kitchen Appliances space which believes in Identifying useful products globally and making it available at affordable prices to the people.

What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?

Spending 6.5 years in the corporate industry, I deeply understood the need to save time in today’s fast moving life. I also believed the fact that technology would be the soul of this generation. It was seen that the working class does not have the time in today’s world to use conventional methods of living at home. Through KRUTAN, we wanted to bring in quality gadgets at a price-point which could be afforded by all. Thus KRUTAN was born.

I wanted to enter the electric kettle market as I’ve been using the kettle ever since I was a child which was a gift to my family from London and I could not start a day without it. I wanted to make it available here at an affordable price as I knew how convenient it was for my family to use it. Looking at this convenience, I decided to launch one myself as I found out that many people around were not aware of its existence as it was considered a luxury.

Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

We are based in Bangalore but we operate PAN India. Our products are meant for people of all classes and we especially focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the country.

 

As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

There is no fear as such. The only worry is the competitors reducing the prices overnight which might be a possible problem for us.

 

Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?

There is healthy competition in the industry. The major competitors are Prestige, Preethi, Fabiano, Philips and Morphy Richards.
We are different from them with respect to price, service and quality of the products.

How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?

Although we say its necessary to have a work-life balance, its practically impossible to manage in the initial days. Since I have been in the corporate lifestyle earlier, I ensure that I schedule all the tasks within the normal working hours and this is the soul reason I am able to run my family as well as business.

 

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

KRUTAN is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a manufacturing concern called Sureseal Pvt Ltd. Sureseal is a company involved in manufacturing of pilfer-proof aluminium caps for various pharma companies, distilleries, etc The funds are pumped in from time to time by Sureseal and Sureseal is a debt-funded company.

 

What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

The biggest misconception is that women are meant to stay at home and don’t have an entrepreneurial mindset. Although this mindset has been changing over time, it still exists in conventional families.
The reality is that I am successfully running KRUTAN as well as managing my family as well.

 

What gets you excited about this company?

The fact that we are able to reach out to all strata of people by breaking the taboo of home appliances being a luxury is what keeps me going.

 

Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?

KRUTAN is a family run business and a subsidiary of Sureseal Pvt Ltd. We have help from Sureseal who manages the assembling and packaging the products for delivery.

 

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