How would one feel when the habit of doodling translates into a flourishing business. Yes, actually all these doodles spinning in the mind of Raj Bhandare either were scribbled on a diary next to him or even on a tissue paper. But the story was incomplete until Nirvana’s proprietor Raj and his CEO wife Sneha, decided to use all these doodles, give a theme and print it on a T-Shirt. Innovative ideas and creation sells, especially when it emerges out of India’s Pokhran-II nuclear test 1998.
“Sanctions on India by the developed world following the Pokhran test in 1998 shocked me and I decided to create a brand of cult and free thinkers. India has always been a responsible country with ‘no first use’ of nuclear bomb commitment. Then why the sanction? Since social networking did not exists then, I took up the challenge to spread my message through T-Shirts which, eventually translated into business. It is not about just making money, but it is about creating a cult,” said Raj Bandare the proprietor of Nirvana.
For the wife-husband duo of Raj and Sneha Bhandare, T-Shirt was the most affordable means of expressing and sharing with the people who own it. Since 2013, Nirvana entered into the arena of online sales and has spread its customer base in Europe, US, south east Asia and of course India. The company has registered growth of nearly a 100 per cent as compared to last year in terms of sales, it sells about 100,000 pieces per year, of which, 30 per cent are purchased abroad.
“Richness of my country lies in its poverty,” says Raj Bhandare who got inspired by the write-ups of Steve Jobs and considers Nirvana’s T-shirts and other accessories as an “experiential product.”
The products of Nirvana is now up for sale on all well-known e-business portals like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Fashionara, Jabong, PayTM etc. Apart from that the company has four retail shops in Goa of which three are at Panjim and one at the Dabolim airport. Also, the company has two outlets in Mumbai.
“We are in the process of a soft re-launch of our product early next year. This will only be for lifestyle premium products. Also, we will soon expand our stores at various airports in the country,” said Sneha Bhandare who is keen to take forward the business from “heart to head” and spread its distribution network.
“My mentor, Nandini Vaidyanathan really helped me open up my vision for the business at the Indian School of Business, Bangaluru. At the moment, we are in the process of expanding our distribution network,” added Sneha. The company already owns three brands – Nirvana (premium product), Kuroki (mid-ranged product) and I Love Goa (mostly for souvenir from Goa).
Both Raj and Sneha believe firmly that the growth of their company came about only after they entered the e-commerce in 2013. “In the very first 18 months of our launch of the Facebook page on Nirvana we received about 16,000 likes and thus helped us grow in terms of product popularity and business,” says Sneha.
