In a family business, while the first generation are the pioneers & build the business from scratch, the continued success & expansion is engineered by the second generation. Prem Motors Private Limited was established as a single dealership in Gwalior in 1990 by Charanjeet Nagpal. Today, led by his successor Kanwaljeet Nagpal, the firm employs 3500 people and operates in 5 northern and central Indian states.

Kanwaljeet showed his entrepreneurial spirit by working his way up the business ladder and learning the ins & outs of the enterprise. When the need arose, he moved overnight from Jaipur to the capital with his family, to manage the burgeoning Delh-NCR business at the time.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL) Kanwaljeet Nagpal (KN) shares the story of his company and its plans for the future.

GL: Tell us about your business.

KN: Prem Motors Private Limited is an established name among automobile dealers in central and north India. The company has been dealing in automobile brands of Maruti, Nexa & Piaggio, and 3 wheelers. We also operate a fleet of more than 150 trailers and trucks for ferrying Maruti cars and HMSI two wheelers. The company has more than 50 dealership sales & service outlets across the 5 states- Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. At present the company employs over 3500 people and the turnover is Rs 1300 crores.

Prem Motors came into existence when the founder Mr. Charanjeet Nagpal, purchased Prem Motors (Yamaha Rajdoot Authorised Showroom) at Gwalior and established a company in 1990. With his efforts and pragmatic approach, he turned around the loss-making company into a profit-making one. The company associated with Maruti Suzuki India Limited in the year 2001 for a dealership at Gwalior and thereafter steadily increased its presence to the present level. The company operationalised many businesses with other automobile giants viz. India Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd., TVS Motor Company Ltd., Hero Honda Motors Limited and TELCO Ltd.

Since I was brought up in the family business culture, after completing my schooling from the Scindia School, Gwalior, and after pursuing my graduation, I enrolled in an MBA programme in the Family Managed Business course from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai. In the year 2008, I joined the family business as an apprentice and then climbed the ladder to become the CEO of the dealership in two and a half years. The company happened to acquire an ailing Maruti dealership, Apra Auto, which had 10 outlets in Gurgaon and Delhi. I shifted base with my family overnight from Jaipur to Gurgaon to shoulder the responsibilities as CEO for the Delhi NCR Division of the company and the transportation business.

GL: What are the challenges you have faced in establishing your business?

KN: The challenges in setting up any business establishment are plenty. With dedication, hard work, diligence & experience I overcame hurdles and we are sailing through all challenges to achieve our goal of registering growth for many years.

In the year 2015, when we took over the ailing Maruti Suzuki Indian Limited (MSIL) dealership of Apra Auto Pvt. Ltd. we were faced with stiff challenges of restoring infrastructure, lost faith & trust of customers and poached manpower. We started operations here with a handful of people and now employ over a 1000 people in NCR. The biggest challenge was to rebuild the complete team from scratch. We invested heavily in restoration of infrastructure, sustenance of resources, brought back and employed quality manpower and won the hearts of lost customers to gain their confidence.

GL: What is the USP of your business?

KN: We always put ourselves in our customers’ shoes as the customer is king. Since we are in the service industry, it’s the customer who is making us grow. Last year we sold 20,894 Cars and serviced about 1,95,000 Cars in our workshops.

The management has advocated its motto to work towards ‘customer delight and utmost satisfaction’ and this culture permeates to every team member.

GL: What are some of the milestones of your business?

KN: My efforts while sharing business responsibility as CEO of the Jaipur division of the company, brought accolades from MSIL and I was conferred with 'The Young Entrepreneurship Award' for the year 2010-11 by Maruti Suzuki India Limited. The dealerships in Jaipur are the best performing in the industry in terms of highest vehicle sales, best customer satisfaction & highest service load.

The company has been given several awards over the years by MSIL for our performance.

GL: What role do you feel GlobalLinker plays in connecting and assisting SMEs

KN: GlobalLinker is a good platform for SMEs. It helps entrepreneurs to connect and help each other and share their thoughts and processes in various fields such as finance, networking and team building etc. I have learned a lot reading through articles posted by others and by participating in discussions on various articles. I appreciate the effort made by GlobalLinker for connecting entrepreneurs across the globe.

GL: What is your big business dream?

KN: We became an MSIL dealer in 2001 with one dealership at Gwalior. With consistent efforts, we became the top 10th ranker during FY 2015-16 with establishments across 5 states. It’s our dream to achieve the coveted top spot by spreading the company’s presence all over the country.

GL: What is your message to aspiring entrepreneurs?

KN: Entrepreneurship gives one a lot of freedom and an opportunity to chase one’s dreams. With effort and hard work a business can be established. You can make your own decisions and set your own schedule. Being an entrepreneur allows you to pick the work you like and make the most of your strengths and skills. The result can be more than job satisfaction. So go for it without any fear and with a ‘never give up’ attitude.

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