Shredding business’ biggest clients are government offices
Bageshri Banerjee | 30 August, 2023
Thirty-three years ago, as G. Srinivasan laid the foundations of his paper-shredding company, Aaditya Enterprises, his friends told him it was a “sunset business” – a declining industry bound to fail.
He went against their advice, but it was no cakewalk. “I went door to door to get clients,” said Srinivasan. “Sometimes I used my hands to shred the paper.”
Today, Aaditya Enterprises is a 9000 sq. foot shredding facility at Killambaram, about 37.8 km away from the Chennai main city. The most striking part is that he’s running a successful business in a country where the government has been running a campaign to digitise the entire country.
Sitting amidst mounds of paper in his shredding facility, 58-year-old Srinivasan explained how his business is prospering despite the global shift towards a paperless future. Among these papers, documents such as Jan Aadhar are packed away in gunny bags, waiting to be shredded to bits.
Last week, the Indian government announced a ₹14900 crores ($1.8 billion) outlay on the Digital India scheme. When asked if Srinivasan is worried about his business, he replied, “Maybe it will have an effect, but not in the near future. It will take another 10-12 years.”
Photo: Manas Pimplekhare
Even in the Chennai heat, Srinivasan, with his rectangular spectacles, salmon pink trousers, and navy blue shirt, was diligently segregating paper, without being concerned about the recent investments in Digital India. Eight years and numerous paperless policies later, Srinivasan’s business remains the same. The company had a net profit of ₹15 lakh ($18,015) in FY21-22 and has been growing steadily for the past five years.
Aaditya Enterprises has several high-profile clients like the Income Tax Department, GST Council, and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with banks such as HDFC and ICICI. McDermott a global engineering and construction company, is one of its clients. “I may be in the paper shredding business, but I have a prestigious client list,” remarked Srinivasan.
Aaditya Enterprises has a business-to-business (B2B) model. Different companies hire them to shred used paper. There are two ways in which this process takes place. Either Srinivasan sends two of his workers along with the machine to the client where they shred the paper, or the customer comes to him. Srinivasan then makes a profit by reselling the pulp for making egg trays and craft paper.
Photo: Bageshri Banerjee
The government hands over its used paper to Capital Record Centre, a high-security printing and paper management company among others, who then hire Aaditya Enterprises to destroy the obsolete documents. Confidential records arrive every few months at the facility with two government officials to watch over the shredding process.
Aaditya Enterprises has tie-ups with high-security storage facilities where they store the bulk of the documents to maintain their confidentiality in the country before they are digitised completely.
Heavy usage of paper in most government offices along with a lack of realization of the policies for digital India is keeping Srinivasan’s business afloat. Even with the knowledge that India is looking forward to a paper-free country, the ‘sun is yet to set’ on his paper shredding business.