DTDC – a Bengali entrepreneur’s dream gets wings to take worldwide flights - GetBengal story

There is an age-old mindset among many who believe in the clichéd saying that Bengalis do not have the entrepreneurial skills and lack the dynamism and drive to venture into virgin territories. How utterly trite this belief is when we simply glance at some of the most successful national and global ventures which have been initiated by Bengalis and have immense potential to further grow in the future.

But success did not come to Chakraborty in a day. Born into a middle class family, he wanted to pursue chemical engineering but his family could not pay for his college fees so he studied Chemistry Honours at Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Residential College and simultaneously freelanced at Peerless Insurance. In 1981, B.K. Roy, the Managing Director of Peerless Insurance Agency asked him to go to Bengaluru and set up the company there. Chakraborty worked tenaciously for six years to set up Peerless and then decided to move on and start his own business.

During the 1750s, the discovery of sea-lanes to the eastern waters brought the western maritime people into direct contact with Bengal. Bengal was predominantly an exporting country from ancient times; but curiously, its export trade was, for cultural reasons mainly, conducted by mostly foreigners. Being encouraged by the Mughal government the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the English and others came by sea to participate in the Bengal export trade. 

Bengali enterprises arose during the early 20th century as ‘Swadeshi endeavours’ and sought to establish a manufacturing and industrial foothold in colonial India. We had Martin Burn of Sir Biren Mookerjee, Bengal Chemicals of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Calcutta Chemical Company, Bengal Immunity and Dey’s Chemicals in the domain of pharmaceuticals, Bengal Lamps, Bengal Waterproof, Bande Mataram matchsticks, Banga Laxmi Cotton Mills, Sen Raleigh in bicycles. But it was not just the colonial era, post Independent India also saw many Bengali brands in various sectors. The IFB Group, Bandhan Bank, Ujjivan Bank, DTDC Courier, Senco Gold, P.C. Chandra Jewellers, Peerless Group, Khadims, Sreeleathers, Techno India Group, KPC, K.C. Das, Bisk Farm, Red Cow Dairy, Ruby Hospital, Disha Eye Hospital, Rice, George Telegraph, JCC Biotech, NDTV, GD Pharmaceuticals, Chatterjee Group, Virtual Infocom--- and many more. 

Riding on this tide Subhasish Chakraborty founded DTDC Courier & Cargo. Within the first year of launching his courier delivery services, Chakraborty figured out the formula for growing big in this industry—a strong network. Twenty-two years on, his 450-crore company reaches 10,000 pin codes in India and covers more than 240 global destinations including the US, UK, UAE, Canada, China Hong Kong and Bangladesh.  

But success did not come to Chakraborty in a day. Born into a middle class family, he wanted to pursue chemical engineering but his family could not pay for his college fees so he studied Chemistry Honours at Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Residential College and simultaneously freelanced at Peerless Insurance. In 1981, B.K. Roy, the Managing Director of Peerless Insurance Agency asked him to go to Bengaluru and set up the company there. Chakraborty worked tenaciously for six years to set up Peerless and then decided to move on and start his own business. During this tenure, he realized there was a big gap between what postal services offered and what customers required. He found the business very interesting and decided to start a courier company. DTDC Courier and Cargo was thus born. 

In 2012, he was the first Indian to take over the UAE-based courier company, Eurostar Express. In 2013, he acquired Bengaluru-based Nikkos Logistics. In the same year, the company stepped in Europe for setting up strategic partnership with Geopost Company. In 2013, Chakraborty set up DotZot, India's first pan-India delivery network exclusively for Indian e-commerce companies. In 2015, DTDC Courier set up its first state-of-the-art automated logistics hub at Hyderabad, followed by Delhi. According to a report of 2021, DTDC Courier has 10500 franchises.

Riding on this tide Subhasish Chakraborty founded DTDC Courier & Cargo. Within the first year of launching his courier delivery services, Chakraborty figured out the formula for growing big in this industry—a strong network.

In June 2019, they tied up with Asendia, a joint venture between French postal service La Poste  and the state-run Swiss Post, to give its customers access to Asendia’s global cargo transportation network. Headquartered in Paris and Berne, Asendia has a network over 200 countries. DTDC’s customers will have access to its network while Asendia will make inroads into India’s rapidly growing ecommerce market.

“The biggest advantage Asendia gives us it the huge postal network backing it. No pin code or zip code is inaccessible,” Abhishek Chakraborty, the present owner of the company assures. The company’s meteoric rise in these hard times should shut up all detractors who say, Bengalis are lagging in business ideas and scared to step on uncharted territories.