KOLKATA: ITC Limited, the tobacco-cum-hotels major which has been fast transforming itself into a FMCG company, is targeting students by customising notebooks for schools under the 'Classmate' brand name.

ITC's greeting, gifting and stationery business chief executive Chand Das said on Monday that targeting school children was a part of the company's diversification plans to foray into the FMCG sector.

He said 'Classmate' is a sub-brand of 'Expressions'. The notebooks had been customised for schools and would be also available at retail stores across the country.

For this purpose, ITC has entered into arrangements with 150 renowned ICSE schools across the country, Das said. Das said a portion of the money coming from the sale of the notebooks would be contributed to some social cause.

ITC had also been organising the 'Classmate Young Authors Contest' in 4,000 schools across the country as a part of the brand building exercise. Das said in the last financial year, the greeting, gifting and stationery business of ITC generated a revenue of Rs 40 crore.

He said in the financial year 2006-07, the division was targeting a revenue of Rs 100 crore.

The business division of ITC was primarily a forward integration of the company's paper manufacturing activity, he said.

With ITC having a state-of-the-art paper manufacturing plant at Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh, the division has been using the high-quality ECF (elemental chlorine free) paper for its notebooks to make it more eco-friendly.

Das said the division planned to introduce more paper-based products, which would be marketed under the Expressions brand.

He said the business division had also introduced the premium 'Papercraft' brand, which was targeted executives and college students.

The company planned to introduce more similar brands for the rural market which would complement ITC's e-choupal initiative, he added.