‘Covid taught businessmen to have backup plans, save for tough times’

Lockdown and Industry

SANIL Kapoor is the director of Sanil Chemicals Pvt Ltd, a multi-brand trading company with its head office on the MM Malaviya road. The company has been into the trading of textile and rubber chemicals since 1984 and handles sales operations of many multinational firms in North India. In an interview with Neeraj Bagga, he shares the effect of the lockdown on his industry. Excerpts:

How has the lockdown impacted your business?

Since we are a trading house, most of our operations are dependent on transportation and with the lockdown in place, we were almost out of every option. As we have been inoperative for quite a long time, we had to put on halt all our future projects.

Do you expect any of your businesses to start running in the near future?

A majority of our business activities require procurement of products from various industries. At present, we can say that we are slowly and steadily getting back to the normal working routine as the industries have started functioning. Keeping in view the tight liquidity in the market, all expansion plans have been put on hold.

Have you released salaries of workers during the lockdown?

During the lockdown, a lot of people suffered due to financial problems, but we made sure that our employees do not face such hardships. We released their salaries as per the company’s policy.

What is the share of online trading in your profession?

We directly deal with companies and consumers. The share of online trading in our business is also negligible.

What lessons, as a businessman, have you learnt from the lockdown?

The most important lesson that I have learnt during the lockdown is that nothing is above Mother Nature and the only thing that is constant is change. One must, at all times, remain prepared with reserves and backup plans.

How do you take the current crisis, as a challenge or an opportunity?

One must always make the best out of every situation and never give up in adverse circumstances. These tough times brought up a lot of challenges for us, but we decided to take the crisis as an opportunity to bring in new business ideas and explore new markets for the future.

What are your expectations from the government?

We expect from the government to explore more opportunities for the industry and better economic situation. Given the current situation, we are quite hopeful that the policies implemented by the government will prove to be fruitful for the economy and the industry.