Siddharth Shankar is a prominent trader in the Asian market and serves as the Chief Executive of Tails Trading, a company that provides innovative solutions for SMEs exporting to Asia. With 15 offices spanning 53 countries, Tails Trading is well-positioned in the industry.
In an interview with Asian Voice, Shankar shares his expert insights into the trading sector and discusses the operations of his company.
What inspired the origin of your company, and what vision and work went into its early days?
We started the business in 2017, initially positioning myself as an investor in a semi-executive role. The main founder was a close friend and MBA classmate, Marcus and our original concept was to help British brands export to Asian markets. Given Asia's vast opportunities and purchasing power, our venture aimed to create a distribution model that connected British brands with the Asian market. We launched at a particularly opportune time, just after Brexit, which brought significant uncertainty. I believe that where there’s uncertainty, there’s also business opportunity, and this insight prompted us to begin.
My former business partner, Marcus, worked diligently to establish the supply chains from the UK to Asia, handling the technical and operational aspects. However, as he had to take care of some personal matters back home, I ultimately bought him out at the end of 2019 or the start of 2020, taking over 100% ownership. At that point, we decided to pivot our business model from a distribution focus to an ownership model. The pandemic had pushed many of our suppliers to the brink, allowing us to acquire some of them. Owning the brands provided us with full control and eliminated the need to negotiate distribution rights, thereby opening up global markets. With travel restrictions in place, it made sense to concentrate on local markets in the UK, enabling us to reach customers closer to home.
What criteria do you consider when deciding to partner with a brand?
When evaluating a brand in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) space, we approach it from two sides: the brand itself and the product. For the brand, we look at the story—how it connects with consumers, how easy or challenging it may be to sell, its relevance, and other intangible factors that define a brand's presence and impact. On the product side, we focus on the tangible elements: the unique selling point (USP), how it stands out in the current market, and whether similar attempts have been made before. If so, we consider what succeeded or failed and why, which informs our approach. We then analyse supply chain and value chain aspects—projecting resource needs, assessing the speed and scale of potential distribution, and identifying any manufacturing hurdles, such as production location and costs. In short, we weigh both tangible and intangible elements, bringing them together to determine if the brand’s formula has the right balance to succeed. If it does, based on our experience, we move forward with it.
What do you think is driving the trend of rising luxury brand popularity in India, especially given the cultural emphasis on affordability and sustainability?
I don’t think India as a whole is consuming more luxury on a per capita basis. It’s actually the top 1% whose consumption has increased, which then reflects in the market. For example, a designer store that once had 50 regular clients might now have 60, with each client buying more than before. So that’s fuelling the demand. Although the country is consuming more, that’s partly due to population growth from 1 billion to 1.4 billion. Luxury consumption hasn’t increased at the same rate. Among the upper class, popularly called India 1, consumption is stable, yet this group creates a desirability factor for luxury that ripples through other segments. Take Bose headphones as an example. Once accessible only to India 1, the demand for similar, more affordable options led to brands like boAt and Noise, which offer comparable features, albeit at different quality levels. This aspirational element allows India 2 and India 3 segments to participate, indirectly boosting the economy and meeting aspirational demand without escalating overall luxury consumption.
What are some key complexities that anyone entering your industry should expect?
I think operational delays are a significant factor that many business plans fail to account for. Even as an investor who has invested in numerous businesses, I've noticed that people often create optimistic timelines for years one through four without recognising the operational delays that can arise at every stage of the process. It's a common misconception to blame these delays solely on government issues, but that’s not the full story. For instance, here in the UK, we frequently face delivery challenges due to a shortage of truck drivers. When building a business plan, these operational delays can make the difference between survival and failure for small companies, and for larger firms, they can impact the bottom line in ways that are hard to quantify.
Another thing that I’ve observed mainly in India, is a troubling trend where many businesses seem to prioritise obtaining funding over building a solid foundation. The ideal approach should be to reach a point of growth, and then seek funding to support that progress. Instead, the focus often shifts to securing more funding upfront. While this model works for a few, it fails for the majority. We need to shift our mindset away from the chase for Series A, Series B, and Series C funding rounds toward a focus on creating genuine value in our businesses. This approach will foster longevity and sustainability in the market.
