To the growing question of crammed up living spaces and increasing number of heads per family, Ameya Davda conceptualized a unique solution to the space crunch and introduced Space Valet. A one of a kind innovative solution which brings forth the answer to a safe, convenient, hygienic storage for people’s possessions. A business strategist by profession, Davda observed the space renting facility of the West and decided to tailor the business to suit the Indian market needs. It is a one destination stop for all those looking for space to store their belongings for a period of time.
“People are basically lacking adequate space in their homes to store all their belongings, be it furniture or even their clothes, kids’ toys or their book collections or anything for that matter. The few people who are fortunate enough to own their own garage use it to store their household gods or just simply rent it our due to the high cost of space in our country”
Speaking about the scenario indigenously, he states, “The average size of a household in Mumbai is approximately 800 sq ft. As real estate rental prices are getting higher our idea was to pride a secure space for them to store their belongings. Sort of like a spare storeroom or spare closet that they’ve always needed, but never had. People are basically lacking adequate space in their homes to store al their belongings, be it furniture or even their clothes, kids’ toys or their book collections or anything for that matter. The few people who are fortunate enough to own their own garage use it to store their household gods or just simply rent it our due to the high cost of space in our country”. He also comes from a background of Real estate businesses which helped him gain a footing in this fledgling of an industry. He opines, “The knowledge of what are the best locations to start a warehouse and what is the expected actual rent one should be ready to pay in any of the areas are just some of the things we have learnt over a long period of time. We have relationships with brokers, vendors, manufacturers and builders and investors thus making it much easier to start the business with a great solid base and the best of infrastructure”.
It has been nothing short of a daring venture to adopt and introduce a new strategy in the Indian setup. Speaking about the contrasts in the West and in India, he points out, “the plus side of starting this business abroad was that the market education and awareness costs would not be so high. Given that fact, India was always going to be a better opportunity to grow this market into a large business. The United States and most western developed countries are already a very saturated market with over 250,000 storage facilities in America alone”. And this led to the inoculation of this absolutely novel concept in the untapped Indian market reservoir.
“The thing we focused on most was relaying to people how clean, how safe, how convenient and how secure and pest free the environment is”
But, how does the local customer base respond to this service offer? “The challenge was to figure out whether people were even ready for such a service. Asking people to store their precious belongings somewhere outside the comfort of their own home would definitely require some convincing and credibility from our side. The thing we focused on most was relaying to people how clean, how safe, how convenient and how secure and pest free the environment is. The other challenge was to explain to people what it can be used for and change their mindset from keeping clutter in their house to allowing a brand new untested company to help them de-clutter their homes and increase their space around them”.
Talking about the future developments of the enterprise, he states, “Our goal is to educate the customers about this industry and the need for Self-storage/Valet Storage. Having said that and with the trends, we have seen in our first facility, we will be refining our business and expect to open more facilities in Mumbai and other metros of India”.
Source: Flairtales
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