Steely enterprise

"I did not know the ABC of business when I started 29 years ago,” says 55-year-old Hormaz Bharu­cha, founder of Ahura Enterprises Private Limited. His is a story of sweat and steel. Ahura Enterprises has grown in scope and strength from a simple roadside fabricating unit making small grills to a modern industrial workshop manufacturing large pressure vessels, heat exchangers, reactors, storage tanks, silos and precision aeronautical engineering goods. Operating from an MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) area on the Thana-Belapur Road, New Bombay, the company uses premium raw material and innovative techniques to supply equipment to the agrochemical, petrochemical, sugar, cement, power and other industries, as well as to government sectors like defense, aerospace, nuclear medicine (plant manufacturing), etc.

"I still remember when I had executed my first order (in the 1980s) and taken the material to my client, he asked me if I had brought the challan (acknowledgement slip for goods received). I told him I don’t know what a challan is!” Bharucha recalls his early years. The client obligingly printed for him a challan book in his (Bharucha’s) company name. "I had no clue how to make a bill either! I was that raw at business, but I could sustain it as I was determined and focused.” People at that time wanted to help you even if you made a mistake, he adds. "I got sufficient chances in my life to rise and fall and rise again because there were others in business who would allow you the chance, unlike now. Today, if you rise then good for you, but if you fall, then you either break your back or you’re finished,” states the hardy entrepreneur whose company has been accredited with BS (British Standards) EN ISO 9001:2000IS /ISO 9001:2000 certification from LRQA (Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance) that follow norms set by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service scheme.

"Our day starts at 5.30 in the morning as we live in south Bombay and travel approximately 100 km a day to our factory and back every day by car,” states Hormaz’s 25-year-old son Berjeez who joined him in the business in June 2010. "I manage the entire Quality Control department where quality process, design and modification of current projects take place. However we don’t look after only one thing. Getting to know about finance is essential, which is where I started.” Marketing, filling up tenders, finalization of orders, setting up the company website, etc. have been part of the young man’s portfolio. "I have learnt all of this with the help and support of my father whom I truly respect and admire as my role model. I owe major credit also to my mother Shehnaz and my older sister Arnawaz who used to handle accounts till last year when she got married to Khusru Sanjana,” Berjeez states. "I would also like to thank my fiancée Friyana Manekshaw whom I shall be marrying next year for her endless support in all my hardships.”

Originally from Bhavnagar in Gujarat, Hormaz had done his automobile engineering from Gandhi Engineering College in Surat. Looking for a job in Bombay, he soon realized that the scope in those days in the automobile field was limited. He joined a company called Mahindra Spicer Limited (which later merged with its parent company Mahindra and Mahindra Limited), working his way up to shop supervisor. Going to work one fine day, he saw that the company had declared a lockout, leaving him jobless. With a wife and one-year-old daughter to support, Hormaz decided he would waste no time looking for employment but would strike out on his own. The business began under the name of Ahura Engineering and Mechanical Works in congested Reay Road in Bombay with the making of grills and other small parts sold locally. With thrift and tenacity, he saved enough money to rent a small place at Darukha­na (an area on the eastern waterfront near the docks where scrap metal and related industries and ship breaking activities still flourish, though the steel markets have officially shifted to Kalamboli in New Bombay). "Later he got in touch with Naval Godrej of Godrej and Boyce and began manufacturing grills and other equipment for them,” Berjeez relates. "Our company flourished with clients like these and that helped us to move into a large plot of 1,500 square meters in the MIDC area in 1994. We built a full-fledged workshop with one bay and a small office. Later on we constructed two more bays of workshops and a two-storey office building.”

In the year 2000 the company’s name was changed to what it is known as presently. "Our consignments are being shipped all over India and to countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia, Macedonia and UK,” asserts Berjeez. The materials handled include carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, aluminum, lead bonding and copper lining, cryogenic vessels (tanks designed to store liquid gases at subzero temperatures), etc. The company has catered to the requirements of reputed organizations like Walchand­nagar Industries Limited and Thyssen­Krupp Industries India Private Limited, states their website. Ahura Enterprises was also involved in a part assembly, notes Berjeez, when Godrej and Boyce supplied several components for Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar probe launched in October 2008. (Godrej has been a supplier to India’s space program spearheaded by the Indian Space Research Organisation since 1985.)

"There had been several opportunities that had come my way where I could have made my business empire twice or maybe three times its size. But our principles do not allow us to take such shortcuts in life. There have been many who have started after me and have made the business larger but what I learnt in these 30 years is that if you want to go the right way from scratch, then you can’t really be the one reaping the benefits (as much as others do),” declares Hormaz. "The present environment is surely very competitive, with lots of fabricators coming in. However, it is the goodwill and quality of our company that keep us above the others. Also we are now more into precision fabrication where tremendous skill and effort is required. Yes, there is risk. The slightest mistake and you can fall back to square one. There is much you have to do yourself and you can’t rely on others to do it for you,” the son observes.

Completing his mechanical engineering from Father Agnel College in Vashi, Berjeez specialized in fabrication technology, topping his college department with 95.6 percent. "As part of the sandwich pattern course, I had done my internship at Godrej and Boyce, process equipment division for one semester and at Larsen and Toubro, Powai, ultrasonic divisions for nuclear and heavy fabrication for another semester,” he describes. "As a child I never had vague dreams of becoming a doctor or a pilot! I had always wanted to do what my father does. I used to tag along to work with him and spend the whole day admiring his work. The happiest moment (for the family) was when my father was presented the Rashtriya Ekta Samman Award in New Delhi on the occasion of the 62nd birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi on August 20, 2005 for ‘outstanding services, achievements and contribution.’” We have not been able to enjoy summer and winter vacations as much as we would like to, he adds, "but then the charm of owning a business” washes away other disappointments. "I’m glad that my son has joined. It’s more than just two extra hands and one extra brain… the joy (of having one’s own flesh and blood in the business) is incomparable. I know that my wife’s upbringing (of Berjeez) is so positive that he shall travel along the same path of serving with generosity and sincerity,” Hormaz declares.