The Hindu Business Line : Modicare to unveil array of ayurvedic cosmetics

Disclosing this to Business Line, Mr Samir Modi, Managing Director, Modicare, said the new range, called Fruit of the Earth, will include products such as cleansing gels, scrubs, shampoos, hair oils and body oils all of which have been formulated in-house.

The company will also be adding to its Velocity men's range and Essensual 20 skincare and colour cosmetics range. In addition, the company is also introducing six new colours in the Starshine range of cosmetics, said Mr Modi. An Essensual 20 gift bag and manicure and pedicure kits are other products that will soon be available, he added.

Mr Modi said the company would set up two more Lifestyle Centres — one each in Bangalore and Mumbai — in the next six months. The new Lifestyle Centres, along with the two existing ones in Delhi and Kolkata, will be the public face of the company and will showcase the complete `World of Modicare', he pointed out. The company's existing `Success Centres' across the country are also being renovated to give them a similar look and feel, he added.

At the strategic level, a major area of focus in the coming months would be training of the company's consultants/ distributors, said Mr Modi. The company was looking at empowering its consultants and enabling them to be successful through these training programmes, he declared.

The `New Consultant Orientation' programme, which is part of this training initiative, was "showing great results", he said. This programme was specially designed keeping in mind the information and training needs of new consultants/distributors, he added.

The company is also using one of its three Internet portals to cater to the training and information requirements of its consultants, said Mr Modi. The Modicareconnect.com site provides the company's distributors with an online office cum training centre. According to Mr Modi, consultants can access services ranging from live chat rooms and personal Web sites to real-time tracking of consignments and round-the-clock customer support. Consultants can also download training material from this Web site, he added.

According to Mr Modi, the company's two other Web sites — Modicare.com and Mymodicare.com — link the company to its customers. Customers can browse through these sites for information on the company and its products. They can also order products online and choose to have their purchases delivered by the nearest consultant simply by entering their PIN code, he added.

When asked about the company's promotions strategy, Mr Modi replied that advertising is not on the agenda at the moment. The company's focus is on activities that are targeted at its consultants, he said. Events such as Sitaraon ki Raat — the company's annual awards ceremony — that celebrate the achievements of its distributors were part of its promotional efforts, he added.

On the consumer side, promotions primarily centre on special packs such as the Celebrations pack or the Velocity travel pack that bundle a range of the company's products, said Mr Modi.

Commenting on the performance of sachets, which the company had introduced in the home and auto-care categories a few months ago, Mr Modi said the response had been quite good, especially in the South. The sachets were being used as trial packs, he added. Consumer response to the company's Velocity range of products for men had also been quite good, said Mr Modi. The range is doing particularly well in Chennai, he added.

Started in 1996, Modicare has a presence in 2,600-odd towns and cities across the country. The company had a turnover of Rs 130 crore in the last financial year, and was targeting a turnover between Rs 250 crore and Rs 280 crore this year, said Mr Modi.

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