Exclusive | SPOTON aims for leadership in Road Express segment: Abhik Mitra

Startrek Logistics has unveiled a new  service logo and brand for the business as “SPOTON - Engineered For Accuracy.” SPOTON is represented by 3 colours - Orange, Green and White, similar to the Indian flag. The logo incorporates a network with a parcel at its centre signifying the integral customer and service centric focus with the backing of a well organised network.

Abhik Mitra, Managing Director, SPOTON & Platform CEO, IEP - Logistics Investments, “The new brand identity defines who we are and what we aspire for/strive to be. The brand is linked to our Mission/Vision and values. It focuses on internal behavior and competencies on serving customers in a perfect manner all the time.” Speaking to Adgully, he further added, “The logo can also be interpreted wherein the parcel is delivered accurately and on-time consistently with quality at every step. We believe the core value of our brand is ‘The System is the Service’, where the System is our network of people, processes, infrastructure and technology all baked into one identity.”

The company is a player in Domestic Door to door, B2B Road Express, Day Definite Delivery Business and services 17,850 pin codes in 250 locations through 11 hubs. It has revenues of over Rs 220 crores and has over 800 employees.

The organised road express industry is currently worth about Rs 2,500 crores. The addressable market that road express players serve is the fastest growing segment in the Indian logistics sector, which grew at over 20% last year. Of this, about 70-80 per cent is held by three to four players such as Gati, Safex, SPOTON etc. Unorganized players in the  Road Express Segment does not exist as creating a Road Express capacity is not easy. The industry is thus highly consolidated with only four competitors comprising majority of the market due to the significant barriers to entry as a result of large investments required to build scale and the high fixed costs of running a scheduled network.

Says Mitra, “trends indicate that customers want better service levels, one stop service providers and a more professional and collaborative way of working between the company and the logistics service providers. At this stage our growth strategy is only for domestic market and the strategy is, Leadership in Road Express driven by Service Excellence, and supported by new products like Domestic Air, Service Parts Logistics, Reverse Logistics, 3PL etc.

Previously a loss-making enterprise, Startrek was acquired by India Equity Partners (“IEP”), a leading, independent, control oriented private equity firm based in Mauritius, through its logistics subsidiary. The sale took effect on 30 December 2011. Within a short time of six months it turned the corner and earned a profit. Says Mitra, “we could achieve this incredible feat by focusing on key operation costs like line haul and pickup & delivery  as also on revenue growth and quality.” Having returned to profitability, SPOTON is now focusing its major investments towards this end and investing in network, IT, infrastructure and people.