One name that you cannot rule out of your minds in Indian education is the S.Chand publishing house. It was started in 1937. In the beginning it was a medium for Indian writers to express their views but now it is the leading brand of textbooks in the Indian markets. Now they produce all kinds of textbooks. They are the market leaders in higher education textbooks, management and domestic education. They have captured close to 60% of the markets with their books.
The competition:
In the industry there are many other publishers that are trying to make an impact. A market that was once ruled by houses like Oxford University Press India, Pearson education and McGraw Hill is now being dominated by Indian publishers like S.Chand and Navneet publishers. In India it is easy to get into the publishing industry because the industry does not require too much of infrastructure. The Indian market accounts for nearly $20 billion a year. The profit margin of the company was about 100 crore in the year 2005-2006 where as it has risen to nearly 310 crore in the year 2012-2013.
The people who have taken the company to success:
This is the only publishing house in India that is now funded by an equity firm. Ever stone capital is the firm that bought 31% shares of the publishing house. They were impressed by the way Himanshu Gupta and his brother in law Dinesh Jhunjhunwala have been taking the company to greater heights. They feel that these two are third generation entrepreneurs and they have the perfect balance between them. These two together possess a great balance of aggressiveness and stability both at the same time. While Himanshu is aggressive, Dinesh is more realistic in his views.
What’s next?
After the funding from Ever Stone Capital the firm is rich enough to buy out certain important publishing houses. This is the best possible strategy that one could opt for in the growing Indian markets. With the funding from the equity firm they bought Vikas publishers. Organically the growth rate has been estimated to a 20 to 25 percent growth where as the growth rate is higher when they start buying the other publishers. So the firm will continue with their progress in the acquisition business both in the publishing sector as well as the digital front.
The risks involved:
The strategy of acquisition is reasonable because it takes a lot of time to establish a publishing house in the markets. The risk is that not every company can add to the value of the brand. The digital front is still not established well in Indian markets this will cause a severe problem if the company tries to progress to fast. The company boss says that making a book is becoming easier with the new technologies but the major challenge that they face is selling the book in the Indian markets. Indian education system is fragile and makes it difficult for publishers to launch their books.
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S. Chand
Indian Publishing House
