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Case study 01 · Steel trading to rooftop solar

Dream Mart

From a steel trading spread to a rooftop solar business

Dream Mart traded steel. Thin margins, capital permanently locked in stock, and a result that moved with a commodity price nobody in the business controlled. About eighteen months later it was operating as an empanelled rooftop solar installer serving households and small commercial buildings across its taluka.

Starting business
Steel trading
Now
Rooftop solar installation
Reach
Taluka level
Transition period
About 18 months

What changed

Before, and after

Before After
Revenue model Spread on each steel trade Project revenue per installation
Demand driver Commodity cycle Subsidy-backed household demand
Capital pattern Permanently locked in stock Per project, against milestones
Price exposure Steel price movement Module cost, largely passed through

The starting point

Where the business actually was.

Steel trading is a spread business. You buy a commodity, hold it, and sell it slightly higher. The margin is narrow, the working capital requirement never goes away, and a price movement in the wrong week can wipe out a quarter of trading profit while the godown is still full.

Dream Mart was running that model competently. The problem was structural rather than operational. Almost all the capital in the business sat in stock and receivables, the margin was set by a market the promoters could not influence, and every rupee of profit depended on completing another transaction.

They wanted to stay in a business they understood, selling to customers and managing supply, but attached to demand that was growing rather than a commodity cycle that was not.

The decision that mattered

Rooftop solar was the right answer for a specific reason: it is still a distribution and service business, which is what this team was already good at. The difference is that demand is underwritten by a national subsidy programme rather than a commodity cycle. The catch is that you cannot simply start selling. Only an empanelled vendor can install a subsidy-eligible system, and empanelment takes months.

The work

Phase by phase, in order

The order matters more than any individual step. Most of what goes wrong in a project like this is sequencing, not effort.

01 Months 1 to 3

What the trading business could actually fund

Before any discussion of solar, we read the existing business properly. How much working capital was genuinely recoverable, what the receivables were really worth, and what the family could commit without putting the household at risk.

  • Three-year review of the trading operation
  • Working capital audit: what was recoverable, and how quickly
  • Realistic assessment of promoter contribution
  • What a lender would advance against the existing business
02 Months 3 to 6

Is there a market in this taluka?

A national scheme does not guarantee local demand. We sized the actual opportunity within reach of a single taluka, segment by segment, and mapped who was already serving it.

  • Household and small commercial rooftop potential in the catchment
  • Segment split across residential, commercial and agricultural connections
  • Existing installers already active in the district
  • Typical system sizes and realistic ticket values
  • DISCOM net metering conditions and any local constraints
03 Months 6 to 9

Building the business model

Rooftop solar looks simple until you model it. Per-project margin, the cost of holding module inventory, the gap between customer advance and final payment, and the fact that a bank guarantee has to be posted before a single system is sold.

  • Per-project costing and pricing model by system size
  • Working capital cycle mapped from advance to commissioning
  • Performance bank guarantee provided for in the funding plan
  • Entity and GST position updated for the new activity
  • Team plan: sales, survey, installation and after-sales
  • Financial projections and funding structure for the lender
04 Months 9 to 15

Empanelment and licensing

This phase decides whether the business can trade at all. Only vendors registered on the national portal and empanelled with the DISCOM can install subsidy-eligible systems, and the steps are sequential. Handled in the wrong order they do not merely delay the launch, they restart parts of it.

  • Business activity and GST registration updated for the new line
  • Electrical contractor licence obtained
  • Vendor registration on the national rooftop solar portal
  • DISCOM empanelment for the operating area
  • Performance bank guarantee arranged and lodged
  • Supplier selection restricted to ALMM-listed modules and compliant inverters
  • Standard net metering application process built for each customer
  • Documentation pack prepared so applications do not bounce
05 Months 15 to 18

Launch, and letting the old business go

The final phase runs two businesses at once. One is being started, the other wound down in the right order, so capital comes out of steel stock rather than sitting there while the new operation needs funding.

  • First installations delivered end to end, from survey to commissioning
  • Per-customer subsidy and net metering process tested and refined
  • Planned wind-down of trading stock and receivables
  • Capital redeployed from steel inventory into the new operation
  • Project tracking and after-sales system handed over
  • Quarterly review cadence established with the promoters

Approvals and compliance

Everything that had to be in place

Each of these has prerequisites. Applied in the wrong order they do not simply delay a project, they reset parts of it.

  • Business activity re-registration
  • GST registration update
  • Electrical contractor licence
  • National rooftop solar portal vendor registration
  • DISCOM empanelment
  • Performance bank guarantee
  • ALMM-compliant equipment sourcing
  • Per-customer net metering process

Orina coordinates and prepares these applications. Where a filing must legally be made or certified by a chartered accountant, company secretary, advocate or licensed professional, that person signs it and we work alongside them.

Where it stands

The result.

The business now sells and installs rooftop solar systems as an empanelled vendor rather than trading a commodity. It kept what the team was already good at, which is selling and managing supply locally, and attached it to demand supported by a national programme instead of a steel cycle.

Capital behaves differently. Where money used to sit permanently in stock that had to be financed whether or not it sold, it now moves through defined projects with customer advances against milestones.

The whole transition took roughly eighteen months, and the majority of that was empanelment and licensing rather than anything commercial. That is normal, and it is precisely why the sequence has to be planned before the old business is wound down.

If you are considering the same

Five things we would tell you first

01

Start empanelment first, not last

Portal registration and DISCOM empanelment together can take months, and you cannot legally install a subsidy-eligible system until both are done. Everything else can be built while you wait.

02

Equipment compliance is not a preference

Only ALMM-listed modules qualify for subsidy. Buying cheaper panels outside the list does not save money, it makes the installation ineligible.

03

Check net metering feasibility per customer

The DISCOM assesses each connection on transformer and feeder capacity. A sale is not a sale until that clears.

04

Model the cash cycle, not just the margin

Advance, module purchase, installation, commissioning and subsidy release all happen at different times, and the mechanism varies by state. Per-project margin means nothing if the cash cycle is unfunded.

05

Wind the old business down in order

Trading stock cleared carelessly leaves capital stuck exactly when the new operation needs funding most.

Services involved

What this engagement drew on

04 Government subsidy & policy research Find the schemes you qualify for, work out what they are worth, and get the paperwork right the first time. Read more 01 Business strategy & growth planning A written plan for where the business goes next: which markets, which products, which investments, and in what order. Read more 03 Project reports, DPR & CMA data Bank-ready project reports, detailed project reports and CMA data, built on real assumptions your banker can check. Read more

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