Group Bayport - Fast Emerging As A Global Leader In $2.9T Custom Printing And Product Industry

Poised to cross $100 million this year, Group Bayport headed by Nishant Shah is consolidating its position as the global leader in the custom printing & product industry. Founded in 2011, the digital e-commerce platform is disrupting the $2.9T custom products market and has served small & medium business owners and individual customers across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand since 2011. In a recent interaction, Nishant Shah, the founder of the company shares how it grew 10 times in a short span of 5 years, its journey, its mission, vision, and contribution to the industry. 

Group Bayport has had a fascinating journey so far. Tell us more about how you became the leaders in the global custom printing & products market?

Now an emerging global leader disrupting the $2.9T custom products market, Group Bayport had a humble start. Initiated by virtue of signage needs for my car washing business in the US, I founded BannerBuzz in the year 2011. Owing to the huge disparity in the prices of custom banners in the US and Indian markets, there was a need to bridge the gap. I ascertained the opportunity and strived to create a digital platform with a low-cost operating model for providing end-to-end custom printing solutions to US customers. That’s how BannerBuzz was spawned! 

Since then, Group Bayport has rapidly expanded into multiple domains, products, and three big segments (Signages and Displays, Custom covers and tarps, and Home Decor and Apparels). Besides growing organically, GBP also made acquisitions of Giant Media and Vivyx Printing to foray into the B2B business for Signages & Displays and Print-on-Demand B2C products respectively. Over the years, GBP has built a technology-led vertically integrated business model that is capable of serving global customers with fast turnaround times, superior quality, and competitive prices by leveraging agile technology, optimized logistics, India manufacturing, and websites across six countries. GBP has grown its manufacturing capabilities to support this rapid growth and has just commissioned a 180k sqft plant in SEZ in Gujarat and established a new manufacturing partnership in Canada.

We all know that a large, highly-fragmented addressable market is Ripe for DTC disruption. How do you plan to cash-in on that?

The market is highly fragmented with over 40000 brick and mortar print shops in the US. GBP believes this industry is ripe for consolidation and disruption through e-commerce as consumers rapidly move from offline to online shopping. In 2021, Group Bayport represented a 0.003% global market share of the $176 billion US e-commerce industry contributing to the $2886 billion global market. 

Since the e-commerce channel is projected to grow 3 times faster than the overall industry through 2027 E, based on independent estimates, Group Bayport is estimated to represent 0.02% of the global market through 2027 for its segments and 4.0% of the US e-commerce market. Group Bayport with its proven business model, aims to seize the immense opportunities in store.

Bayport is poised to cross $100M this year. How were you able to achieve this feat entirely through internal accruals?

With everything in-house - from production, and marketing, to customer support, we have laid a robust foundation to rapidly scale our business. The highly-streamlined technology base, common manufacturing process, and rapidly growing brand equity help us incubate and scale new product categories and geographic reach. Our fast-growing customer base of repeat customers is also one of the factors contributing to achieving this feat. 
 
How well is Group Bayport positioned to benefit from the shift to e-commerce?
 
Since the US market is core to Bayport’s business, it is well-positioned to benefit from the shift to e-commerce. The global market that has historically been dominated by brick and mortar players has seen a seismic shift to e-commerce. With the rapidly increasing e-commerce penetration, digital platforms are expected to have outsized growth. Consequently, the global market for custom signs & displays, covers & tarps, and home & apparel is projected to grow at 2.5% per annum to $3.3T by 2027E with e-commerce growing 3 times faster than the market at 9.0% per year. 

With a superior business model and presence across multiple categories, we leverage mass customization and focus on the hyper-growth journey providing access to multiple end-markets and growth drivers. 

What are Group Bayport's advantages?

Group Bayport’s end-to-end and vertically-integrated operations, from e-commerce to manufacturing, provide the Company with agility, flexibility, and scalability while supporting the best-in-class customer experience. We have a large custom portfolio with advanced customer service offering on-demand designs and support services 24/7. Our strategic central manufacturing facility in India servicing across all verticals and countries enables a low-cost, high-margin KPI-driven manufacturing model that helps maximize output and minimize waste. Our centralized global production management facilitates efficient order flow with minimum inventory burden. 

Our low-cost shipping model comprises first-class logistics with global fulfillment capabilities to help us meet customer delivery demands in 3-4 business days. The strategic network of global partners not only supports overnight orders but offers fast turnaround times. 

What will be your strategy to scale your business in the next five years?

Since Group Bayport is well-positioned to benefit from the channel shift, based on our forecast the company would represent 0.02% of the global market by 2027 for its segments and 4.0% of the US e-commerce market. Our rapidly growing equity capacitates us to scale new products  & categories in the next 3 years. In our Home & Apparel domain, we are planning to offer industry-first custom-sizing for t-shirts globally. Recently, we have launched the widest range of compliance signs. We have also explored industrial tarps - a niche lacking custom products and are working to scale up the category with new products & geographic reaches.

With multiple levers and growth drivers, we have projected to drive ~50% CAGR Growth over the Next 5 Years. With our digital-first model with hyper-customization, global cost leadership, quick turnaround times, and superior customer service at its core, we are striving for continual growth by strengthening our operations in current international geographies and expanding globally replicating the successful US models. 

Besides broadening our portfolio, we plan to reach a billion-dollar revenue mark by 2027 by making acquisitions of brick and mortar/e-commerce companies in adjacent categories, and existing/new geographies.