Can you brief us about your company?
In a supply chain system, a product has to move through four pillars—supplier, manufacturer, third-party logistics and retailer. These are the four channels in the supply chain. Now, LEAP stands for ‘Leading Enterprise in Asset Pooling’. We pool the assets, we ask customers to move from capital expenditures (CapEx) to operating expenditures (OpEx). We offer pallets/timber pallets, crates, utility boxes, foldable large containers, and intermediary bulk containers. We give these products to suppliers to move their products and take them to the manufacturer. From the manufacturer it goes to third-party logistics on the same pallets and at the end reaches the retailer. So, we give our products to suppliers take them back from retailers, who might be at different locations, and put them in use again. In this way, we say that one product can be used by different customers at different points of time.

Significantly, Leap India helps customers to reduce their supply chain costs and make sustainable supply chain operations. If the supplier buys the pallet, uses it and in case breaks it, they will throw it and then the manufacturer has to buy a new pallet again. This transition happens a million times a day, and buying new pallets repeatedly increases costs and is also not sustainable for the environment. We have more than 650 customers, nearly 4000 touch points and 6 million assets worth more than 1000 crore. In this process, everything is tracked by us with the help of software. We are the 6th company in the world which is into this business and we cater to almost every industry except for bulk materials like iron ore, steel etc.

What according to you are the key challenges faced by customers today in the MHE industry? How has Leap India been helping its customer to enhance their business?
The major challenge the supply chain is facing in India is ignorance from companies. Companies are not giving equal importance to the supply chain as they are giving to the other counterparts of business like marketing, advertising etc. The supply chain cost to India’s GDP is 14 per cent and China is at 4 per cent. The government is aiming to bring down this cost to 9 per cent in coming years, but one cannot do this without establishing a proper system. Palletisation is an important activity in supply chain management. The most considerable cost for a company is to produce goods and not able to sell them. Companies have to open their mindsets and understand the fact that they don’t need labour for the supply chain. All the developed countries are using palletisation for moving their products. We should also look forward to it in order to compete with the best of the world.

We have given a saving of 20 to 70 per cent to all our customers. In addition to that, we have added sustainable operations in the supply chain management for the companies as all our timber comes from harvested forests. We do not use methyl bromide, chromate copper arsenate (CCA), or copper chrome boron (CCB) chemicals. We have got seven certificates in this lead. We import timber from different countries that are in timber trading and are listed on the German stock exchange.

What are key trends observed in the logistics & warehousing sector with respect to the usage of material handling equipment (MHE) & systems?
India is moving faster to vertical racking and horizontal space is getting reduced. Previously we used to have a height of 14 to 15 feet, but now we have moved to 32 feet. We have also started to use pallets. Currently, single deep racking, double deep racking, ASRS (Automated supply chain racking system) etc are in trend. There are great technological advantages happening in racking.

Secondly, people have started to understand the importance of flooring. So, they are now moving to epoxy flooring, and trimix flooring from cement flooring so that forklifts and heavy material can be moved into the warehouses. People have started to use the Kirby structure which is a dome-type structure in warehousing. They are also using forklifts, VNA trucks etc. In MHE, the market is shifting from lead–acid batteries to lithium-ion batteries in order to be more environmentally friendly.

Is the demand for automated (or semi-automated) MHE increasing in the logistics & warehousing sector? How is your company tapping this trend?
AI and ML are doing great work in forecasting. We have 22 warehouses. Before we used to manually calculate the number of pallets each warehouse requires in Excel sheets. Now with the help of ML, we have put in the last five years’ data and within seconds it gives us all the data in terms of number of customers, the required number of pallets, replacements of pallets, and additionally it also provides us with the data on how we can increase the efficiency of our work. To give another example, we have a warehouse in Patna and there are 40,000 pallets, now it used to take us around four days to count that number of pallets, and check whether anything is broken or missing. But now with the help of drones, we can do the same work within 20 minutes. So, our accuracy and efficiency have increased with the help of ML.

AI actually requires the intelligence of a supply chain manager. One should be able to assess the usage requirement of AI. Previously we use to do all the entries, but now we just click an image and with the help of software everything is done automatically and uploaded. Robotics is another big thing in AI and we are absolutely moving towards robotics. In the coming year, we are moving to incorporate robots to repair our pallets.

What are your growth plans in the coming years?
This year we have done a turnover of nearly 300 crores and an EBITA of nearly 150 crores. We have been a profitable company for four years. We are having plans to expand geographically. We are also planning to grow inorganically with some acquisitions. Taron is a subsidiary of Leap India which has taken over a company named Skan Marine. So, after this acquisition, we are number two in forklift renting. In future years we will be doing more such acquisitions. Organically there is a growth of 27-28 per cent per annum for the next seven years. In the next five years, we aim at a turnover of 1000 to 1500 crore.

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