ITC is one of India’s
foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of over US $ 7.5 billion*
and a turnover of US $ 2.6 billion. Rated among the World’s Leading Companies by
Forbes magazine, ITC ranked third in pre-tax profit among India’s private sector
corporations during 2003-04. The Company has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels,
Paperboards and Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Branded Apparel, Packaged
Foods and Confectionery, Greeting, Gifting & Stationery and other FMCG products. While
ITC is an outstanding market leader in its traditional businesses of Cigarettes, Hotels,
Paperboards, Packaging and Agri-Exports, it is rapidly gaining market share even in its
nascent businesses of Branded Apparel, Greeting, Gifting & Stationery and Packaged
Foods and Confectionery.
As one of India’s most valuable and
respected corporations, ITC is widely perceived to be passionately nation-oriented.
Chairman Y C Deveshwar calls this source of inspiration “a commitment beyond the
market”. In his own words: “ITC believes that its aspiration to create enduring
value for the nation provides the motive force to sustain growing shareholder value. ITC
practises this philosophy by not only driving each of its businesses towards international
competitiveness but by also consciously contributing to enhancing the competitiveness of
the larger value chain of which it is a part.”
ITC’s diversified status originates
from its corporate strategy aimed at creating multiple drivers of growth anchored on its
time-tested core competencies: unmatched distribution reach, superior brand-building
capabilities, effective supply chain management and acknowledged service skills in
hoteliering. Over time, the strategic forays into new businesses are expected to garner a
significant share of these emerging high-growth markets in India.
ITC’s Agri-Business is one of
India’s largest exporters of agricultural products. The ITC Group is one of the
country’s biggest foreign exchange earners (US $ 2.2 billion in the last decade). The
Company’s ‘e-Choupal’ initiative is enabling Indian agriculture
significantly enhance its competitiveness by empowering Indian farmers through the power
of the Internet. This transformational strategy, which has already become the subject
matter of a case study at Harvard Business School, is expected to progressively create for
ITC a huge rural distribution infrastructure, significantly enhancing the Company’s
marketing reach.
ITC’s wholly owned Information
Technology subsidiary, ITC Infotech India Limited, is aggressively pursuing emerging
opportunities in providing end-to-end IT solutions, including e-enabled services and
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
ITC’s production facilities and hotels
have won numerous national and international awards for quality, productivity, safety and
environment management systems. ITC was the first company in India to voluntarily seek a
rating for Corporate Governance. The rating done by ICRA, an associate of Moody’s
Investors Service, signified “a high level of assurance on the Company’s quality
of Corporate Governance.”
ITC employs over 15,000 people at more than
60 locations across India. Ranked among the top five sustained value creators in India by
‘Business Today-Stern Stewart’ studies conducted between 2000 and 2003, ITC
continuously endeavours to enhance its wealth generating capabilities in a globalising
environment to consistently reward its 1.5 lakh shareholders, fulfil the aspirations of
its stakeholders and meet societal expectations. This over-arching vision of the company
is expressively captured in its corporate positioning statement: “Enduring Value. For
the nation. For the shareholder.”
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