Bhuvanish Shet, a Business Management graduate from the UK is a prominent businessman in Goa with many branches to his portfolio. He was born and brought up in Mumbai but shifted to Goa when his father decided to move his well-established construction company to Goa. Jai Bhuvan Group is a conglomerate of multiple family businesses that include Real estate business, Hospitality business Shopping Malls, Cinemas, Retail business and Education vertical owned by Mr Bhuvan Shet, his brothers Rajesh Shet and Dr Shekhar Shet and his mother Shakuntala Shet. He is also mentor for Aseema, English Monthly magazine, part of Jnana Bharati Prakashan Ltd. Aseema covers range of topics from current affairs, political events, business news, historical events as well as social and cultural issues. He is also one of the recipient of Goa’s Pretegious Incredible Goa Awards.
Bhuvan, did his preliminary and secondary studies at the King George School in Mumbai before joining the R. A. Podar College of Commerce and Economics where he did his BCom. He later joined the University of Leeds in the UK to complete his MBA in International Business. “While I was in the UK, I used to visit many shopping centres and that inspired me to set up a mall back home in India”.
Bhuvan’s father had already shifted his business to Goa by the time he had completed his Masters. “My father moved to Goa during the 90s with his construction company and purchased a huge property in Porvorim which was highly underdeveloped during those days.”
Bhuvan tells us that his late father, Shri Sadanand Sheshgiri Shet decided to move to Goa as his roots were in Goa. “We have our Kuldaivat (Goddess) Shri Shantadurga Chamundeshwari Kudtari Mahamaya in Gudi Paroda, Quepem. Hence my father decided to move to Goa and expand his business here. My father was a visionary and he knew that one-day Porvorim will be an up-and-coming town so when he started his first project in Porvorim, he named it NOVA CIDADE, which means New City. He always thought that Panaji will expand slowly to its neighboring borders as it was getting saturated. Just Like How Navi Mumbai came into existence, Porvorim also became a major town in the state where the Goa State Assembly, New Secretariat, Education Department and Goa’s New High Court were built. Porvorim is developed now but my father had a vision of its development way back in the 90s.”
Mall de Goa
Bhuvan’s father had acquired around 36 acres of land in Porvorim to build various projects, including independent bungalows, a commercial complex and plots. “On that land, my father built a huge commercial complex which is situated on the main road of Porvorim. We also built a school in Porvorim, Jnyan Vikas School, and the last piece of land was reserved for the mall. When I explained my concept of the mall in front of my family, they agreed to take this project ahead. After getting the green signal from my family I started meeting the architects to transform my idea into reality, but things didn’t progress as planned. During those days, ie late 90’s malls were not doing well across the country. It was only by mid 2000’s when the Malls across India started doing well. That is the time we decided to do Mall De Goa. We got all our approvals by 2010 and construction of Mall de Goa commenced. However we could get financial closure only by year 2012.”
Goa’s first full-fledged mall, Mall de Goa opened its doors in 2016. “Mall de Goa is the state’s first with a multiplex, food court, gaming zone, huge parking, and lots of national and international brands under one roof. Mall de Goa is a family property owned by Jai Bhuvan Builders in which two of his brothers and mother are equal stakeholders. All of us have contributed equally towards bringing this property into existence. My brother Rajesh handled the construction part of the project including all the civil work, MEP and approvals while I took care of the finance and marketing and brought the major brands on board, and my other brother Dr Shekhar handled all the legal matters like finalizing agreements with tenants. He is based out of Mumbai.”
Jai Bhuvan Builders
Jai Bhuvan Builders is a division of the Jai Bhuvan Group which does real estate work. It has developed more than 2 Million sq ft across Goa, Bengaluru and Mumbai. It has developed the iconic township Nova Cidade in Porvorim comprising of plots, shops, offices, flats, villas, Hotel and a School. It undertakes the construction of premium villas as well as affordable homes. “We construct premium and luxury villas under the brand “ Sonhe Homes” which means Dream Homes. We are currently doing luxury villas in Vagator and Nagoa. These villas are built keeping in mind the upmarket clientele, HNIs and celebrities. We are also in the basic affordable segment of housing that includes single and double-bedroom apartments. We are doing 1BHK apartments at Kadamba Plateau. A basic 1BHK apartment starts at 33 Lakh and 2BHK starts at 65 Lakhs, which is for the mid-segment, while we’re also building 4BHK apartments at Miramar which start at 2 Crores upwards. Besides that, we have also launched a new plotting scheme wherein we provide plots starting from 270 Sq.Mts and which goes up to 500 Sq.Mts. We also provide our clients with a complete turn-key project in case if they want to buy the plot along with our construction services. We are across all the spectrums of real estate right from the affordable segment of 1 BHK apartments to lavish luxury villas.”
The COVE
Speaking on the journey of COVE, Bhuvan said that, unlike Mall de Goa which is family- owned business, COVE is an independent project spearheaded by him and owned by him and his wife Lavanya Shet. When I asked him how this idea came about, he said, “When we started the mall, we had the opportunity to take the franchises of national and international brands. As a child, I was always into Garments and followed latest trends and fashion and that passion led to us taking on the United Colours Benetton franchise in the mall which was the beginning of my journey into the fashion arena.”
“Before too long, we then opened up US Polo Assn, followed by Calvin Klein Jeans, Deal Jeans, Tommy Hilfiger and Jockey making it a total 6 major brands franchises. We then took on MAX for the mid-range segment and Zudio in South Goa. After working for around 6 years in retail business as a Franchisee, I decided to start own lablabel. So with 6 years of experience, I figured it’s about the right time to start my own brand and COVE was born.”
“I started working on the COVE brand in 2022 and started our first COVE store in Margao this year,ie 2023. We are now working towards starting our second store in Panaji, and also will be opening one in Mall de Goa as soon as some space becomes available,” he said.
COVE has even started despatching garments outside Goa. “Our first consignment has been sent to one departmental store in Kolhapur and they are doing very well. I am very positive about COVE as a brand and I want to take it to the next level. We will be opening 3 to 4 outlets in Goa before setting up outlets pan-India and we’ll eventually venture into major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi but before we do that, we want to have a good presence in Goa.”
Speaking about the COVE brand, he said “it is women’s fast fashion focussed on western wear and the reason behind launching in Goa is to get a better understanding of what the consumers want. Goa has a big influence on western wear and I think it will get a good demand from the market. We have the entire range right from tops, shirts, pants, dresses, palazzos, jeans, and shorts. Unlike other brands, we concentrate more on the bottom wear as I have seen other brands are more focused on topwear.”
COVE garments start for the age group of 15 plus. “The teenager is our major client base as they follow fast-changing fashion but at the same time, we also have the garments for middle age group and senior citizens too. As of now, we are concentrating on women’s Western wear and may be at a later date we might add some more segments. Our main idea is to provide to our customers high fashion garments at a very affordable price. We are selling them at just Rs. 999 onwards. We use the term Premium merchandise at affordable rates.”
Speaking about the target of the COVE brand, Bhuvan said that he wants to reach 100 points of sales in the next 5 years. “The point of sales means exclusive business outlets, Shop-in-shop outlets in lifestyle stores, Counter sales in departmental stores. Each outlet will be a point of sale and this way we are targeting to have a presence in the 100 points of sales in the next five years.”
When I asked him what, according to him, can be a threat to the business he said “Women’s wear segment is a highly competitive and price-conscious market and there are many brands in this market. The only survival technique is to keep yourself up-to-date with fashion trends and introduce new designs regularly. We keep a close eye on the fashion trends that come from developed western countries and based on that, our designer team starts creating new designs.”
According to Bhuvan COVE is also looking to enter into the E-Commerce market segment. “Today the E-Commerce market segment is one of the most lucrative. Retail is no longer just a storefront but everything is now online with sites such as Myntra, Ajio, Nykaa, Amazon and Flipkart. Retail has now become an OMNI channel, which means it is the combination of Offline Stores and Online Markets and hence you need to have your presence in both. Export is another segment that we are looking at the moment.”
Bhuvan said that challenges will always be present in whatever business or work you do. Building Mall was the biggest challenge for us as Goa is not even in the top 100 retail markets in the country but despite that, we took the challenge of bringing up the mall and establishing modern retail in Goa. It took us two years to convince the bank to fund this project and even after that, we had to sell lots of business and personal assets for the completion of Mall de Goa. There is a need for a lot of sacrifices to achieve your dreams whether it’s your assets or personal life.”
“I want to tell all budding entrepreneurs that if they want to become successful then they will have to dream big. Come out of your comfort zone and work hard to achieve your dreams and success will come to you. We have done it with Mall de Goa and will be doing it with COVE as well. I believe that if you give your 100%, success will come to your doorstep. I am very much confident about taking the COVE brand to national and international platforms and Goa is just the beginning. The dream that was started by my father was taken ahead by me and my brothers in real estate and garments being my passion, I am taking it ahead. So come out of your comfort zone, give your 100% and burn the candle from both ends.”
