The name Wilmar Creations has a suitably `corporate' ring to it. It sounds just right for a company that manufactures and exports innovative gifts -- from clocks to pens, pen stands, paper holders and cutters -- for top-of-the-line corporate clients. "I found it in the encyclopaedia," says Pankaj Shahani, its 27-year-old President.

"Wilmar was a Greek king who always did everything he wanted to do." As it happens, Pankaj's story isn't very different either. The young entrepreneur who started off with a paltry loan of a few thousand rupees from his father -- a bureaucrat in the ministry of information and broadcasting -- now runs a company with an annual turnover of Rs seven crore. All in just eight years.

Pankaj has picked up as many as 17 `best product awards' last year with exhibitions in various cities aross the globe. He has his own R&D department and amanufacturing unit at Panvel with a dedicated staff which even lives on site! "Today we have a capacity for 35,000 pieces a month and a ready stock of at least 5,000 for each of our 50 designs -- priced between Rs 150 and Rs 3,500 each. We have also created our own clock brands like Kempa Quartz in the US, because non-branded stuff is not acceptable to clients there."

However, despite the incredible success of his endeavour, Pankaj has no plans of getting complacent, at least till he is unequivocally acknowledged as the best name in the business. "When I started off, I got pushed around a lot. Trading was a very difficult job. But now I am happy."