Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006 |
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Marketing
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Standards & Benchmarks ITC agarbatti unit working with AP on hand-cut bamboo Mohan Padmanabhan
Kolkata , Feb. 13 ITC Ltd's Agarbatti SBU (Strategic Business Unit), sourcing agarbattis from the cottage sector, has started working with the Andhra Pradesh forest department on a quality improvement programme for hand-cut bamboo, a critical input for ramping up volumes in the highly unorganised agarbatti business. The annual consumer spend in agarbattis is Rs 1,000 crore, with the organised players (numbering just 7 or 8) accounting for 25 per cent. ITC is participating in a bamboo development project launched by the Tripura Government, and has also launched a vendor development programme in Agartala, under which some 10 million sticks are being sourced per month. The company, marketing battis under the "Mangaldeep" brand through its five lakh retail outlets in the country, has doubled volumes from 50 million sticks per month last year to 100 million sticks now. Mr V.M. Rajasekharan, CEO of the Agarbatti SBU, told Business Line that the established bamboo potential in Andhra Pradesh was around 25 tonnes per month, and some 1-2 tonnes of bamboo per month were being lifted for making agarbattis. He said the 2006-07 target for Tripura was 15 tonnes per month up from 2-3 tonnes in November last year. Pointing out that ITC has been able to successfully blend corporate social responsibility with business objectives through this 100 per cent outsourcing from the cottage sector, he said the Mangaldeep portfolio had also been expanded, fully backed by a national vendor development programme. Many new fragrances (or a combination) based on regional preferences are now in the pipeline. The company continues to provide inputs to upgrade the manufacture of agarbattis by villagers and small-scale manufacturers. Mangaldeep Agarbattis, according to him, now enjoys eight vendors on a national basis, out of whom three (all based in Bangalore) are ISO-9000 certified. "Our target is to get all our agarbatti vendors certified for quality standards.''. The company now sources all its requirements through tie-ups with Sankranti, Ananth and Jayanti Domestic Products (all from Bangalore), Cottage Industries of Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, Prayer Dhoop Agarbattis (New Delhi), Swastik Industries (Chandigarh), Jayanti Products (Agartala) and Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) (mainly Coimbatore). Describing the KVIC-ITC "Mangaldeep" agarbatti project as a good beginning for linkages with the cottage sector under the Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (REGP) of the Union Government, Mr Rajasekharan said Avarampalayam Sarvodaya Sangh in Coimbatore had been identified as the nodal agency to supply and monitor the agarbatti manufacturing activities of the other identified Directly Aided Institutions and small REGP units of KVIC which supply to ITC.
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