ITC Greeting Cards to expand range
Mona Mehta
In a strategic move, ITC Greeting Cards
Business, the strategic business unit of ITC Ltd which markets ‘Expressions Greeting
Cards’, plans to diversify into marketing stationery products such as notebooks and
notepads in soft, hard and spiral form next month. With this move, the company will roll
out stationery products under the brand name ‘Expressions Paper Craft’ across
the nation.
Prior to the formal launch, the company has
been test-marketing these products in metros like Chennai and Hyderabad, informs ITC
Ltd’s ITC Greeting Card Business chief executive officer Chand Das.
As for the rationale behind the
company’s new plans, explains Mr. Das: "ITC has always had interests in greeting
cards, paper and packaging. And now due to our vertical integration capacity, we want to
convert commodity products into consumer products."
According to Mr. Das, these consumer
products which mostly include notebooks and notepads will be sourced from national vendors
and priced between Rs 15 and Rs 100. "These products will be stocked at
stationers’ as well as at the retail outlets where Expressions cards are available.
Currently the Expressions portfolio includes autograph books, slam books and gift-wrapping
paper," he adds.
As part of its marketing strategy, the
company is planning to promote its new product range through 30,000 stationery stores and
100 distributors, across the country soon. At present, Expression Greeting Cards are
available in around 10,000 outlets across 700 towns, informs Mr. Das.
The company is also looking at the
possibilities of converting its existing chain of 300 Expression outlets called
‘Expressions Valued Customers’ (where ITC has developed a scheme in which
currently a retailer has to give ITC Greeting Cards business a 50 per cent share at the
display counter) into 100 per cent Expression outlets within a year. The scheme has
increased visibility and helped step up sales, says Mr. Das.
According to Mr. Das, the company’s
brand-building plans for stationery products would centre around point-of-sale (POS)
material. "Quality and design would be the two factors which would draw customers
away from cheaper alternatives. The Rs 500-crore stationery market, which is currently
growing at a rate of 10 per cent at present, is expected to grow at a rate of 10 to 15 per
cent next year," he reasons.
In this segment, ‘Expressions Paper
Craft’ will compete with other brands such as ‘Navneet Publications’ and
‘Scholar’ among others. "In the greeting cards segment, we have garnered a
market share of 15 per cent," he adds. The market leader in this segment is Archies
with a market share of 35 per cent.
Further, the company is also in the process
of implementing an end-to-end collaborative supply chain model, basically, an enterprise
resource planning model covering eight vendors and 100 distributors, sums up Mr. Das.
