Personal correspondence

What the service promises before the invoice is raised

Chief Financial Officer India

I price the hours a refrigerated asset must remain available, including the hours when it earns nothing.

A driver could bring back a signed delivery record and still leave the billing desk with a question. The signature might confirm receipt without settling a disagreement about waiting charges or an additional stop. I encountered those distinctions in my first job at Rithavya Cargo Services in June 1995. I had just completed a commerce degree at Veyadrish Commerce College. My responsibility was to prepare supported invoices and reconcile customer queries under the accounts manager, not to decide a commercial dispute on my own.

A truck waiting at a customer's gate still occupies capital, a driver's time and refrigeration capacity. I want our financial promise to reflect the service we must keep available, not just the kilometres that appear on an invoice. That requires finance to listen to dispatch and quality colleagues before a price is agreed.

Annual service revenue: ₹286 Cr; Year ended March 2026
Food-storage hubs: 8; Western and southern India
Owned refrigerated trucks: 128; Service capacity; separate from customer cargo value

I connect cold-chain prices and investments with the time, space and readiness that each customer service consumes.

I lead finance at Taranvelli Cold Chain, a family-promoted private company based in Pune. We operate eight food-storage hubs and 128 owned refrigerated trucks across western and southern India. Revenue for the year ended March 2026 was ₹286 crore, and the company employs about 1,000 people. I manage 35 finance colleagues through four functional managers. My remit covers reporting, treasury, planning and the financial evaluation of contracts and investments. Temperature requirements, product release and transport safety remain with the qualified operating teams.

I started in transport billing in June 1995, after completing a commerce degree. A trip could be finished while the papers needed to bill it were still incomplete. Later, fleet costing showed me a different problem: a truck could be fully occupied without covering its cost if the quote had assumed too many productive hours. My work has since expanded through regional finance, treasury and group control. I still begin a significant customer discussion by asking what the vehicle or storage chamber must actually do between one billable activity and the next.

Three recent decisions illustrate that approach. We revised a distribution contract after loading and unloading waits reduced achievable monthly kilometres. We staged a new storage hub around the capacity supported by initial commitments. We also kept a disputed cargo-loss claim separate from cash available to fund the business. In each case, finance needed operational evidence and a commercial decision. A revised model alone did not shorten a queue, fill a chamber or settle a claim. I try to preserve those limits when explaining the outcome to our directors.

Waiting time changed the fleet requirement

A proposed contract assumed 9,000 monthly kilometres per truck. Observed turnaround supported about 6,200. The revised service and price avoided pretending that the original fleet could provide the same availability under both assumptions.

The first chamber was a complete operating decision

A 2,400-pallet proposal costing ₹18.6 crore became an initial 1,200-pallet stage costing ₹10.8 crore, plus ₹1.2 crore for expansion provisions. The smaller opening carried a higher cost per pallet and left the later stage undecided.

A filed claim was not money received

Of a ₹3.4 crore cargo-related exposure under review, ₹1.2 crore was submitted to insurers. We kept that requested recovery separate from liquidity planning while responsibility and coverage were examined.

Current focus

I am connecting each major customer's service assumptions with the next investment and renewal discussion, particularly the dwell periods and seasonal occupancy that can disappear inside an annual average.

Conversations I welcome

I am considering a first external board contribution in logistics or another asset-dependent service business, with twenty annual days initially available subject to employer consent and a detailed review of relationships and calendars.

The leadership record

Trusted with consequential decisions.

Formation

Bachelor of commerceVeyadrish Commerce College · 1995

Nirav asked us to show the complete service cycle before he questioned the price. That made the discussion about what we could deliver, rather than whose estimate should win.

Mitali DeshvraneOperations director, Taranvelli Cold Chain

The full record ↗

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