Gati promoters mull e-commerce marketplace by next year

The new venture will be registered as a separate entity

The promoters group of Gati Limited, a Hyderabad-based express distribution and supply chain solutions company, is working towards floating an online e-commerce marketplace venture, according to its chief brand custodian Meera Madhusudan Singh.

"We are conceptualising the idea of bringing together exotic niche products that carry the geographical identification (GI) tag and offer them on the online marketplace. The new venture, which will be registered as a separate entity, is expected to go live sometime during the 2016 calendar," she told mediapersons today.

The 25-year-old company's e-commerce division, E-Connect, contributed Rs 128 crore to its consolidated revenues of Rs 1,663 crore in the 2014-15 financial year. "With ecommerce becoming a game-changer, we expect our ecommerce division to register a 100 per cent growth, year-on-year," Singh said.

Gati's core express distribution division, Gati Kintetsu Express, a joint venture between Gati and Japanese freight forwarder Kintetsu World Express, has ventured into the e-commerce fullfilment business last year. It has opened e-fullfilment centres in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, processing 30,000 shipments per day for four ecommerce majors. It is in the process of on-boarding two more customers in due course.

Gati today launched a revamped website, and a new consumer mobile app which it claims is the first by any in the logistics industry in India. According to G S Ravi Kumar, chief information officer of Gati, the mobile app lets a consumer track shipments, calculate shipping time and rate to a desired destination, besides helping the consumer locate the nearest Gati office and also place a request for a pick up.

Gati Limited's scrip ended the trade at Rs 165.40 on the BSE on Tuesday, down 5.70 per cent, over the previous close of Rs 175.40 per share.