“From small beginnings come great things!” The journey of Ruhe, India’s largest and fastest growing true Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) company is perfectly in sync with this famous saying. From manufacturing bathroom fittings and accessories as OEMs, Ruhe soared high in the market as an established brand that offers a broad spectrum of technologically advanced Bathroom and Kitchen Accessories and Fixtures, with the objective of making households comfortable, convenient and luxurious all at the same time! In less than 2 years, this bootstrapped company has gained substantial visibility in the market and also partners with over 3000 dealers pan India today, aiming to target over 10,000 dealers in the next year.
Ruhe offers a wide array of made-in-India Bathroom and Kitchen Fittings and Fixtures – Floor Drains, Shower Drain Channels, Handmade and Hydraulically Drawn Kitchen Sinks, Faucets, Overhead and Hand Showers, PTMT Products, AISI-304 Grade Stainless-Steel and ABS Unbreakable Bathroom Accessories, Toilet Accessories (Jet Sprays, Health Faucets) and all Allied Items for installation purposes. As of today, Ruhe stands tall as the biggest manufacturer and seller of floor drains in the country at affordable prices.
Considering the pain points – price, availability and quality of its consumers, the company has also been effectively coming up with solutions to address them. For instance, Ruhe’s water-saving faucets and showers consume substantially less water than their conventional equivalents, thereby leading to water conservation and promoting sustainability by using recyclable raw materials for in-house manufacturing and packaging.
Redefining the Market Standards
Today, the company owns 7 manufacturing and warehousing units spread across 70,000 sq. ft. of land in New Delhi producing 1100 SKUs from scratch. These units are well-resourced and equipped with technologically advanced machinery and techniques that are used to produce fresh bathroom fittings designs. In addition, Ruhe’s quality control systems run smoothly, and its products are priced lower than its competitors. Its policies like – “Dispatching orders within 48 hours”, “30 Days No-Questions-Asked Easy Returns”, “Up to 10 Years Full Warranties on all Products”, and “Free Shipping across India” stand as major attractions for its online customers.
Kapil Gupta, Founder & Head of Business Development, Ruhe, asserts, “We manufacture and sell our products online through our website as well as through various other platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Moglix, and Meesho. We take pride in being one of the fewest brands in the market that provides online sales of such products through its website and efficient post-sale services”. Ruhe has successfully evolved as an omnichannel platform by partnering with UDAAN (a B2B online platform), which enabled them to connect with dealers across the country.
A Dedicated Team
It takes a village to run a business! Ruhe has a dedicated and restless team of over 100 employees who are relentlessly striving harder each day to get the company one step closer to its vision. Ruhe was initially a vision in itself which was turned into reality by Kapil Gupta (Head of Business Development), Ankit Gupta (Head of Operations) and Mahender Gupta & CA. Rekha Gupta (Heads of Finance). Kapil is a first-generation entrepreneur with a 12-years of experience in the Kitchen & Bath Fitting industry. A Computer Science graduate from the University of Southern California, Kapil left his SAP job in the USA and returned to India with an idea to materialize his love for technology and manufacturing. An avid reader with a knack for everyday business happenings, he was quick to identify the gaps in the Kitchen & Bath Fittings industry and soon helped in paving the way for Ruhe.
A True D2C Brand
The Indian fittings industry mostly follows the conventional trade route where products go through numerous channel partners (Manufacturer/Importer > Distributor > Sub-Distributor > Retailer > End-Consumer) who add on to the product price at every level causing the end consumer to pay much more than the actual value of the product. But Ruhe, India’s first true D2C brand in this vertical, eliminates the multiple middlemen by indigenously manufacturing and directly selling its products to the consumers. The D2C business approach has helped Ruhe become the one-stop shop for all consumers looking for high-quality and efficient products at fair prices.
At present, the company is working towards building a framework which would allow 2-hour doorstep delivery anywhere in India for the products purchased from its website. By and large, it aims to ease the accessibility of its products by making affordability and convenience the cornerstones of its brand. Ruhe’s objective is to develop more SKUs and increase its manufacturing capacity; initially by utilizing the existing equipment up to its maximum potential and eventually incorporating technologically upgraded state-of-art equipment into the business.
Ruhe is constantly leaping ahead with the objective to establish multiple warehouses across the country to enable ‘same-day/next-day’ delivery in the next few months. Kapil adds, “Our 2030 vision is to build a billion-dollar revenue which would be achieved with an expansion of our brand in the Middle Eastern and African nations. Ultimately, we aim to become the biggest Kitchen and Bathroom Fittings Company in India, keeping our focus on manufacturing, quality, affordability and quick delivery”. Moreover, the company is targeting to achieve a revenue of 100 crores in the next 12 months, while stringently adhering to the ‘Make in India’ motto!
