Rohan Ghosh, general manager of TAI Industries, is a student of history. Professionally, however, he has his feet planted very much in the present.

“My training and profession are not quite related,” says Ghosh. “I studied history at Presidency College in Calcutta. But, after college in 1991, I ended up as a trader. I started by dabbling in telephone equipment marketing. I think I did a pretty decent job. I also dealt in security and surveillance systems for some time.

“Then I began working for a Singapore-based company called Kinkuen. It was involved in sourcing and procuring cement from Sri Lanka and parts of South India for delivery to Bangladesh. It was exciting, for I had to keep track of the shipments, the supplies and make sure they reached their destination on time. I had to move around a lot, which was a welcome change from my trading days.

“Once, when I was on a business trip to Chittagong I had a terrible experience. There was trouble with the vessel and we got stuck. We couldn’t arrange alternative transport and ended up spending 45 days in that ship. But I met lots of interesting people and it was a fascinating experience.

“But this job, too, got a little tedious after a point. It was all too predictable. It was then that an old friend called me one fine morning and asked if I would join his family business. I jumped at the offer. The company, called TAI Industries, was into trading food products and industrial chemicals.”

But food wasn’t exactly his cup of tea. Says Ghosh: “I was keen on doing something new and different. They allowed me to explore the possibility of diversifying into retail. I felt retail was catching up and there was a huge untapped potential, because there were thousands of people who found it inconvenient to do their shopping from various markets. I was one of them. Being extremely fond of cooking, I always had to run from one place to another to buy my vegetables, fish and spices. If I could get them all under the same roof, it would be so easy. We were already into distribution, so retail was just an extension of our existing business.

“The first outlet of our chain, C3, was opened at Elgin Road in Calcutta. It was quite an unnerving experience. I realised that I had taken the plunge without being fully prepared. It is difficult to make your supply chain work smoothly unless you have enough experience and the software to support your business.

“I remember being very anxious on the first day. It was a quiet opening without any advertisements, so there were very few customers. But I was not disappointed. I knew things would pick up. Within a week we were getting about 900 customers a day. There were minor glitches and complaints, but we managed to please our customers. Our aim was to make sure that we had on our shelves every food item available in the country and we have lived up to that.

“The one worrying thing was that C3 was not attracting customers across the board. Only the car-owners were coming in. I wanted the scooterwallahs as well. C3 had been visualised as a people’s store. But shopping, I realised, was a matter of habit. People shop at places they feel comfortable in. So, the best way to draw customers is to make them comfortable. We went out of our way to do that.

“When C3 opened at City Centre in Salt Lake, Calcutta, we were far more organised. This store is much bigger. Now we have experience, better co-ordination with our suppliers and the necessary software to make things move smoothly.

“But beneath the calm, there is always chaos, madness and a lot of hard work. This is what I like best about retail. You can never relax. Even now I get calls at four in the morning from some harried employee telling me about some supply that hasn’t arrived on time. I work round the clock.

“Our aim now is to spread C3 to every nook and corner of the city. Our third outlet is coming up at Gariahat in Calcutta. We will also have smaller outlets across the length and breadth of the city. The target is 30 by 2007.”

But at the rate Ghosh is going, by 2010, the store’s name may well be changed to C300.