New Delhi, 13th August 2018: Sohan Lal Commodity Management Pvt. Ltd. (SLCM) is celebrating its 9th Foundation day this month. Founded on 13th August 2009, SLCM has in a short span of time emerged as a leader in scientific warehousing management in the country. The year 2018 also marks 9 years of building a culture of trust, transparency and sustained focus on improving processes, technology and talent in line with the groups stated mission.
SLCM, a post-harvest agri-logistics group, has operations across the entire value chain spanning commodity warehousing, agri-financing, collateral management and procurement. The key differentiator and success driver for SLCM is its focus on the scientific management of warehouses as opposed to creation of new warehouse infrastructure. The group manages a network of 2863 warehouses and 19 cold storages with a combined area of 48.93 million sq. ft. and throughput of 686.60 million MT.
Speaking on the group’s milestone, Mr Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO, SLCM Group, said “The achievements of SLCM in a short span of 9 years are truly astounding and reflects the level of commitment and expertise the group possesses. Our path breaking innovations such as ‘Agri-Reach’ and ‘Kissandhan’ and focus on scientific process management will help us achieve much more in the future. Our operations in Myanmar have proven to be a stepping stone for us to build a truly global footprint. I congratulate everyone at SLCM for accomplishing these wonderful milestones and on completing 9 years of successful operations”.
The company is backed by marquee investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, Everstone Capital Venture, ICICI Bank’s EIF Fund, Creation Investments Capital Management, Incofin Investment Management, ResponsAbility Investments AG.
The group has a vision to build a global footprint across geo-climatic regions as the preferred agro services provider across the entire agriculture value chain. Towards this, SLCM forayed into its first overseas venture in Myanmar in 2014 and more such international operations are in the pipeline mainly in the ASEAN region.
SLCM has entered into tie-up agreements with 11 leading banks in India and 5 banks in Myanmar to offer collateral management services. The group has recently entered into an agreement with BSE to support its much-awaited launch of agri-commodities trading. Under the agreement, SLCM shall provide warehousing, assaying services, crop management services to BSE for the purpose of storage of various food grains, pulses and other agro based commodities at various places in India.
The Myanmar operation of SLCM Ltd. manages a network of 113 industrial zones, 2.90 Million sq. ft. of warehousing space and a throughput of 9.18 million MT. Globally, SLCM handles a total of 890 varieties of commodities as part of its operations and is India’s first and only group to have managed 3rd party silos with 8 silo chambers, 696,960 sq. ft. of area & 100,000 MT of capacity. SLCM is actively looking to expand its global network and entering Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Africa where post-harvest losses are very high.
‘Agri-Reach’ is SLCM’s real time Process Management System, developed over a significant period for which a patent is pending. This system is agnostic to infrastructure, location, or crop to enhance efficiency and transparency. The efficacy of SLCM’s warehouse management system has been credited by FICCI with the potential to reduce India’s post-harvest loss of 10% to a minimal 0.5%. SLCM has also introduced the latest in warehouse control technology such as biometrics, GPS tracking, real-time data capture through SAP etc. The technology has enabled a faster TAT and improved fidelity in the groups warehouses much to the delight of its valued clients.
‘Kissandhan’ with an A – (investment grade) credit rating (CARE) is SLCM’s Agri Finance subsidiary and has disbursed over Rs. 1651.88 crores as loan and serviced over 40,733 storage receipts at 217 warehouses, impacting over 3,61,688 farmers till date. Kissandhan has a defined TAT of loan disbursal within 24 hours and introduced the co-borrower concept in agri-financing.
SLCM has been facilitated with 39 International and National accolades for its stupendous work. In 2018, it has been felicitated with ‘Warehouse Excellence Awards 2018’ for “Industry Excellence in Logistics and Warehousing for Agri Commodities.” It has also been recognized by ‘Demand Planning & Forecasting Forum and Awards 2018’ by SCMPro besides ‘SCMPro Warehouse Awards 2018’ for “Best Agri Warehouse”.
