Delivering diesel to where the customer is has the makings of a big business with modest gains for the environment too
Repos Energy founders Chetan Walunj and Aditi Bhosale Walunj knew they had a strong business and environmental case for their startup
Image: Anirudha Karmakar for Forbes India
Soon after he entered his family fuel retailing business, Chetan Walunj noticed a strange dichotomy. A few kilometres away from their outlet in the industrial area of Chakan, near Pune, Mercedes Benz was working on expanding its factory. While the work was being done according to their global standards, diesel was transported in jerry cans and housed in a not-so-safe manner. “The fuel was being stored in a very makeshift manner,” he says.
In coming to Walunj’s fuel outlet, Mercedes had to spend a lot on ‘dead mileage’—industry parlance for the fuel expended in getting to an outlet to top up supplies. At the same time, Walunj knew that the only way to grow the business was to either increase the fuel sold through their outlet or add new outlets. The latter was time-consuming and expensive. He began to explore ways to increase the throughput of his existing pump.
Why not supply Mercedes diesel on-site was an idea that occurred to Walunj and his wife Aditi Bhosale Walunj, a partner in Repos Energy.
No sooner had they thought of the idea they realised the challenges they’d have to overcome. For starters, the legislation then required fuel to be sold only at a fuel retailing outlet through pumps whose standards were certified by the Petroleum Explosives and Safety Organisation. Sales elsewhere and by any other means were illegal. There was also a huge lobby of dealers who would see an immediate threat to their business.
(This story appears in the 18 June, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)