Meet GRM Overseas MD Atul Garg, one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs

New Delhi : From its humble beginnings in 1974 to its current status as an NSE and BSE listed business, GRM Overseas Limited has grown to become one of India’s leading basmati rice exporters and a rising participant in the consumer staples market.

There has been a lot of growth at GRM Overseas since then. Under the direction of Mr. Atul Garg, Managing Director, GRM Overseas has steadily expanded its operations to the point where it is now the third largest exporter of rice from India, selling to more than 45 different nations. Located in Panipat (Haryana), Naultha (Haryana), and Gandhidham (Tamil Nadu), GRM’s three rice processing operations have a combined yearly output capacity of 4,40,800 MT (Gujarat). In addition, the Gandhidham plant is close to the Company’s 1.75 Lakhs sq. ft. warehouse, which allows for quick exports via the nearby Kandla and Mundra ports.

With a 30% CAGR from FY2018–FY22, GRM produced 1.5 million metric tonnes of basmati rice in FY22.

In addition to selling its own branded products (10X, Himalaya River, and Tanoush), GRM engages in private label relationships with its customers. In recent years, GRM has made an effort to promote its brands and products to customers on a one-on-one basis. GRM has made it such that its high-quality items are constantly accessible to the end consumer by having them stocked in the warehouses of a number of big merchants in India and elsewhere.

GRM Overseas has expanded its offerings in the domestic market with the launch of 10X Basmati Rice, 10X Zarda King Golden Sella Basmati Rice -1121, 10X Biryani Kit, and 10X Shakti Chakki Fresh Atta.

A World-Class Shuttler Brand Ambassador Saina Nehwal is responsible for publicising the company’s wares and endorsing the company’s products.

Driven by pure enthusiasm and a long-term vision, this business plans to become a global powerhouse in exports. Almost 40 years ago, Mr. H.C. Garg founded GRM firm to work on government contracts. Mr. H.C. Garg was a visionary who used forward integration to expand the business beyond its traditional rice-based focus and into other areas of the supply chain. His first shipment outside was in 1989, and Saudi Arabia remained GRM’s primary export market until the early 2000s, when other Middle Eastern countries began to grow in importance.

After graduating from Thames Valley University and with an MBA degree in International marketing, Mr. Atul Garg, started his career on the shop floor of his company GRM understanding the basic processes of milling and quality control as that is the first step towards building a world class brand of rice that is unparalleled in taste and quality.

The value system became the basis of the core thinking of Mr. Atul Garg which also helped him develop as a person that he is today and thus the strong base upholding GRM.

In his initial years Atul Garg was able to successfully shift the legacy business into large conglomerate and soon with the correct value system and progressive thinking was able to achieve the milestone of Rs. 1150 crore turnover, a remarkable milestone for all – the management, staff, distributors, investors. And increased their profits by developing a large customer base.

Mr Atul Garg had a knack of understanding the consumer deeply and developing products as per the need of the hour which gave rise to a subsidiary company FoodKraft and the leading brand 10X.

The company’s varied clients all over the world gave them the right exposure of spreading their wings, thinking large, out of box and successfully implementing the strategy into success.

Over the years, the company has grown from just being a rice exporter to an associate partner of major global consumer brands across 45 countries.

GRM have plans to unveil more high margin products in coming quarters under our 10X brand which will further strengthen our presence in both the general and modern trade.

Being one of the leading basmati rice exporters, the company has transformed itself into a major consumer staples player with a focus on improving its brand visibility and aiming to create India’s largest and trusted standalone consumer staples brand.

Thought process…..

A brain child of its MD, Mr. Atul Garg, GRM’s brand 10X depicting immense power is bringing the concept of Back to Basics and thriving on the age-old staples such as rice, wheat and other FMCG commodities. The company is thrilled to uproot the myth that RICE and WHEAT are mere carbohydrate and should not be used in extreme health conditions.

Using a customer centric strategy, he is leading the team to acquire the instantly actionable learning about their target consumer, by questioning how, when and where can their products and services make their best customers even better

GRM in their new Avaatar, is focusing on new solution development and customer experience management in terms of the understanding the eating habits of their consumers and making them easily available to them.

Their main focus now is on the segments of RTC and RTE which includes Ready to cook Biryani kit in multiple flavours, rice noodles with low percentage of saturated fat, rice flour, ready to eat Biryani in different flavours, rice phirni and the delectable Sushi.

The radar of GRM has broadened and is now ready to take on the food side of India’s most flourishing FMCG market. The quest for excellence into every new product is based on an extensive R&D by GRM before any new product is launched.

By 2025 GRM sees themselves as the leading domestic brand 10X and a very committed company for providing FMCG goods into the Indian market through FoodKraft taking over a considerable market share in consumer staples

By 2030 the company sees itself as one of the premier consumer staples brand – Foodkraft committed to customers, community, employees and Investors. GRM’s vision is to be the most preferred company of choice for all our customers, in India and abroad, and to continuously render service excellence to surpass their expectations.

With extensive interaction with customers abroad and in India, Mr. Atul Garg has been working incessantly on the changing food habits of the Millennials and the Generation Z. The quest for health despite of indulgence has been the mantra of this growing economy especially after the pandemic.

The company’s focus is on understanding the change in eating habits of the consumer and with the rise of health and wellness segments, GRM take pride in working on Innovation over competition.

Futuristically…

There is a parallel research response from GRM team on the ever-growing problems of Type II Diabetes and gastritis. Our team is working hard on making products which are compatible with this epidemic that India is faced with. We not only want every Indian to have their meal without worrying about the fat and the starch content in their food but also accept rice in its original form. This concept is once again derived from our back to basics approach where our ancestors thrived on the staple food of India which is once again- our good old rice.

Collaborations and Growth

GRM takes pride in their soon to be collaboration with GOKHANA. India’s answer to digitize corporate cafeterias and tech park eateries solving problems for employees, caterers and the corporate.

It will not only add to the already fast-moving growth of 10X but also will help us to get involved into benefits of technology

It will act as another platform for marketing our developing RTC for Horeca and RTE segment amongst corporates.