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Re-envisioning Building Materials Supply Chain With Cutting-Edge Technology While asseverating the company's guiding credence, the CEO revealed an entrancing notion of five principles that encompasses; customer is the top priority, company and individual are one, innovation and technology are must, we own it and get it done, and one team, one goal

By Teena Jose

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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In order to have the greatest impact on restorative economic amelioration in the short-term and the perpetual rationality in the long-term, infrastructure should be endurable, resilient and comprehensive. As diving to the deeper notes, the sustainability of an infrastructure solely depends on the construction industry that enshrouds expansive fragments to be checked. It includes the disintegrated nature of the construction businesses across the world, global supply chain challenges resulting in construction delays and labor shortages, the slow adoption of technology in the building materials industry and so on. On this exact point, Shaily Garg and Ashish Chandra, who is also an engineer, thought to give a technological and more methodical touch to this sector, and thereby the idea of Global Fair emanated.

Being raised in a small quartz manufacturing family business in India and having trained as an engineer, and worked at P&G prior to founding GlobalFair, Shaily Garg said that she was always inspired by large supply chain challenges that could be solved through the adoption of technology and innovative design.

"With the help of our proprietary technology, using AI and predictive demand modeling, we have created an end-to-end synchronized supply chain from discovery to the final delivery of materials at a customer's doorstep. Our one stop shop platform is transformational for supply side manufacturing with opening up the pockets of manufacturing that exist in India, Vietnam and other SEA countries for the global markets. We aim to become the largest technology first global supplier of building materials providing an easy, cost efficient, and seamless cross border procurement experience for large U.S. construction contractors," said Shaily Garg, CEO of GlobalFair.

While asseverating the company's guiding credence, the CEO revealed an entrancing notion of five principles that encompasses; customer is the top priority, company and individual are one, innovation and technology are must, we own it and get it done, and one team, one goal.

It is evident that the conceptualization of these driving key principles occurs even from the root of the company's functionality. In the origination, the founding team's research started with exploring the current supply chain practices in this industry, analyze the extent of fragmentation and then find the product market fit to serve the end customer amidst the huge supply chain shortage and labor crisis in the US.

"A deep sense of manufacturing and supply chain helped us to quickly figure out the nuisance and build an innovative technology to build trust amongst the end project owners and fabricators. It took us multiple iterations across the production and technology also so as to build the focused solution for our customer segment," said Shaily.

But, like every business, things won't turn out positive all the time. When it comes to GlobalFair's viewpoint, it was the pandemic that created a challenge. Covid has had a seismic impact on global production networks such as that logistics costs and existing supply chains have altered fundamentally. Businesses today are more worried about the resilience of their supply chains and are therefore looking to expand their supplier networks.

"There is a clear need and demand for a transparent technology first solution, like GlobalFair. Hence this is a golden time for us with being at the right time with the right product in the right market. We serve medium/large contractors in the US. Their existing options include big manufacturers, small to big local distributors, exporters based in source markets and retail chains buying from distributors. At GlobalFair, we are disintermediating the long cross border supply chain, connecting contractors directly to the suppliers," Shaily added, while untangling the current market scene.

Though the construction materials market is a highly fragmented market and being a prominent player in the ecosystem, sharing the expertise is essential. While recollecting the endeavoring initial days, Shaily signifies to the path followers that, with layers of both cross border supply chains and customisation related logistics complexities, a technology first approach is the only solution to sustainably scale and grow this market.

"Given the nature of the industry, the adoption of technology has traditionally been slow and hence a solution that provides ease and transparency linking cross border demand supply while also opening up with new demand avenues for SME suppliers globally have worked well for us at GlobalFair," she further added.

With a total fundraise of $22 million, GlobalFair manoeuvres for an astounding journey ahead. They specialize in ready to install custom product finishes across the entire multifamily and commercial hospitality segment in the country and while there is undoubtedly a change in macroeconomic conditions, the digits disclosed that they are continuing to see an all-time high in rental markets and an increased investment (56 per cent increase YOY - with a 4 quarter total of $374 billion) in the multifamily sector, coupled with its increasing contribution to commercial real estate volumes (37 per cent).

"Given our comprehensive product offering and intuitive technology solutions, we are already seeing strong signs of customer love (evident in repeats and share of wallet expansion). We plan to go deeper in the multifamily hospitality segment expanding our product offering so as to occupy maximum wallet share of materials in a construction project," Shaily verbalized her exhilaration.

From ordering samples to planning and design to production and delivery, the company is available 24x7 to support their customers in delivering world-class products and services.

Teena Jose

News Desk Reporter with Entrepreneur India

Teena is a post graduate in financial journalism. She has an avid interest in content creation, digital media and fashion.
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