Diamond Thoughts

Diving into the logistics business at the age of 25 in 2007 with Rs 8 lakh, Ishaan Singh Bedi, who started with just three employees and a single truck, has built a 700 employee 200-truck company with a turnover of Rs 98 crore.

His company, Synchronized Supply Systems Limited, rode the wave of the third party logistics (3PL) boom in the country, and grew year on year, expanding its fleet of trucks and increasing its warehousing space. “In the first year we achieved a turnover of Rs 78 lakh. By 2013, we hit the Rs 50 crore mark,” recounts Delhi-based Ishaan, as he traces his journey as an entrepreneur from the age of 25 after quitting the family business over differences with his father.

His father’s company handled custom clearance and freight forwarding and he started working there while doing his graduation in Banking and Finance from Institute of Technology and Management, Gurugram.

So, in 2007, when Ishaan announced that he wished to start his own logistics company the family was not too excited, but still gave him the capital of Rs 8 lakh to launch Synchronized Supply Systems Limited – an unlisted public limited company.

“I focused on trucking and warehousing as it is the bigger piece of the business apart from freight (forwarding). In 2007, anybody who had the finances to buy a few trucks would become a transporter,” he observes.

“Not many qualified people were in the trucking industry back then and many in the business operated solely on goodwill. The first three years proved to be difficult for me, though we achieved a turnover of Rs 78 lakh in the first year.”
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