Beacon of Inspiration: 60 Years of Safeguarding the Industry-BVC Logistics

Of Humble Beginnings & Passing of the Torch

Bhagwanji Vallabhji (BV) Chinai founded BVC as a customs brokerage company in Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai in 1960. Uday Chinai, the present Chairman and son of B V Chinai joined the group in 1980 at a tender age of 18 and took the torch from his father, expanding the company strength to strength, from a customs broker company to an end-to-end logistics company for the diamond & jewellery industry. In 2013, Bhavik Chinai joined the company as the third generation entrepreneur and under his leadership, the company today has become synonymous with logistics and security in the jewellery industry covering logistics, tourism, security, investments and technology under its wings.

An Empire of a Secure Logistics Company

BVC Logistics was the first company in India to start organized customs brokerage for the diamond and jewellery industry. Since then, BVC has been a pillar of support to the industry by creating India’s first international secure door-to-door solution in 1980, thereafter domestic in 1999. As a leading customs broker, BVC’s format of the customs documents was adopted by the Indian Customs for all export and import in late 1980s. As the first enterprise in India to adopt EDI, use GPS enabled armoured trucks and enable shipping to 130 countries, BVC has led the industry’s evolution through example. Since 2013, BVC has grown exponentially, expanding their offices, team, solutions and customers, working with over 16,000 businesses in the mine to market value chain consisting of miners, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and e-tailers. BVC operated in 8 cities in 2013 and realized the domestic jewellery industry needs organized logistics for an ever growing share of organized trade. BVC grew from 8 cities to over 20 cities in a period of 3 months and thereafter has grown its presence in over 50 cities, servicing over 10,000 pincodes for door-to-door secure logistics.

November 2019 marks the start of BVC’s 60th year and BVC launched its new vision, Vision 2022. The new vision of BVC is ‘To Make Shipping The Competitive Advantage of 30,000 Businesses by March 2022’From having a team of less than 200, BVC has grown to more than 1300 individuals across India, Singapore and Hong Kong. With hundreds of bullet-proof vehicles and a nationally appreciated signature vehicle design, BVC is synonymous with security and trust.

BVC has historically worked with thousands of exporters and importers and since 2013 has grown the number of businesses it serves from 3,800 to over 16,000. Today, BVC provides its topnotch services to mining giants like Rio Tinto and De Beers as well as large, medium and small manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and e-tailers.

Achieving the Unachievable

In 2015, BVC started a specialized solution for e-commerce logistics and is a proud exclusive partner of Flipkart, Amazon and others for the jewellery category. BVC teamed with the customs to bring the cost of international B2C shipping down by over 70 per cent, enabling the growth of online sales. In 2014, BVC created the largest strategic collaboration of this industry by forming a joint venture with the 160 year old American enterprise Brinks, enabling delivery within 24 hours in over 130 countries.

In 2015, BVC started Vamaship, a technology platform making shipping easy and cheap for thousands of e-commerce SMEs across India which has today become India’s largest.

Thereafter in 2017, BVC started BVC Consultancy. BVC Consultancy works with dozens of entities as an extended legal partner to decode customs regulation. BVC created solutions in 2018 to make any business export ready in 7 days and helps large enterprises receive AEO certification.
In 2018, BVC launched its first direct to consumer solution ‘BVC WeddingSHIP’ where BVC does door-to- door secure logistics of jewellery for destination weddings, from the guests homes to the venue and back, offering absolute peace of mind for the largest life event.

Beyond logistics for diamonds and jewellery, BVC supports almost every Indian luxury brand for secure logistics. Among its USP is its fully insured exhibition solution for private and public exhibitions. BVC is the proud Official Logistics Partner of over 100 Indian exhibitions and all major global exhibitions.
In early 2019, BVC launched Vamastores which makes a jeweller e-commerce ready in 24 hours with a mobile friendly website integrated with payment gateways, logistics, SMS, email and dozen other and helps increase sales through listing inventory on jewellery marketplaces.
In late 2019, Alibaba and BVC’s Vamaship collaborated for enabling exports for thousands of domestic jewellery merchants and increasing sales for exporting merchants. This long term partnership is going beyond jewellery to help handicrafts, textile and fashion merchants who work with Vamaship. BVC has been actively investing in technology startups and has invested in companies in crowdfunding, HR tech, legal tech and several high growth industries.

A Vision like No Other

November 27, 2019 marks the start of BVC’s 60th year and BVC launches its new vision, Vision 2022. The new vision of BVC is ‘To Make Shipping The Competitive Advantage of 30,000 Businesses by March 2022’.
Today, logistics is a cost centre for every business and BVC aims to transform this and make shipping a competitive advantage where simply by using BVC to ship, businesses can make their customers’ experience a beautiful buying experience.
To achieve this vision, BVC has set aggressive service targets like achieving delivery within 24 hours anywhere in India and deep use of technology. BVC is also expanding its geographical coverage from 10,000 pincodes to over 20,000 pincodes, making hundreds of bullet-proof vehicles, recruiting over 1000 BVCites, all over the coming 30 months.
In BVC’s philosophy, logistics is like electricity, road or water, it’s a utility. The way life in a village gets transformed by access to a new road, jewellers in small towns can transform their businesses through access to reliable secure logistics. BVC aims to go beyond logistics to become a partner for jewellers to increase sales and reduce indirect costs.
Initiatives like Vamastores and Alibaba are the start of a range of solutions to help businesses find new customers in India and globally. Through deeper collaboration with ecosystem partners like banks and packaging manufacturers, BVC aims to create a holistic solution for all diamond and jewellery merchant needs. As a market leader, BVC’s vision is now to deepen relationships and bring logistics solutions which exist only in developed nations to India.

A Samaritan at Heart

Making a difference to society is the reason for being in business for BVC and BVC Foundation is the group’s organization which focuses on making a difference in education, healthcare, animal welfare and supporting other Foundations.
The Foundation runs three flagship events, the DOO Initiative, Blood Donation Week and Tree Plantation Drive. The DOO Initiative, held every May makes a difference to over 30,000 kids in orphanages and adults in old age homes across over 30 states of India by contributing books, stationery and clothes.
The Blood Donation Week, held in November is held in over 20 cities in India where the BVC ecosystem joins to maximize blood donated. BVC started planting over 1000 trees in its annual Tree Plantation Drive and aims to grow this by 10x over the coming years. Beyond direct initiatives, BVC supports several Foundations in their initiatives by contributing financially and its team’s time.