Saturday, January 16, 2010

And now its 2009…

Sitting tight at his work office in Chennai, C. K. Ranganathan (or CKR as he’s lovingly called by his friends and colleagues) is giving a fair bit of thought to the next big leap for his carefully nourished FMCG gambit CavinKare. In as much, the Rs.700 crore company is poised at a crucial inflection point in its history today. Having already dug its tentacles in regional markets and won the confidence of low-income consumers, CavinKare is now mulling its next step, which includes pan-Indian forays for some of its businesses and even bringing in some SEC A consumers within its fold. Says an enthusiastic CKR, “We are making efforts to be seen across categories. And you’ll see that in another decade, we’ll be an HUL in the making!” CKR ambition is for CavinKare to soon “become a Rs.5,000 crore group.”

It’s not just empty posturing. Peep into his detailed roadmap for achieving that target, and you realise that his ambition is neither inflated nor overrated. CKR believes that the key to CavinKare’s growth is the slew of brands in its kitty, which have a tenacious stranglehold in regional markets, spanning segments like shampoos (Chik, Meera, and Nyle), fairness cream (Fairever), deodorants and talcum powders (Spinz), masalas and ready mixes (Ruchi, Chinni’s), hair colours (Indica) and toilet cleaners (Tex, Topp Mopp). Not only that, he’s also taken his brands in select overseas markets, with a particularly strong presence in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Today, says CKR, CavinKare boasts a market share of 24% in shampoos, while Fairever has a 7% share in the fairness cream segment. Going forward, it is this strength that CKR hopes to exploit in his growth pursuit. “Most Indian companies simply leverage one parent brand. That is the weakness of Indian companies. They are afraid to create more brands thinking it will cost big money. But look at us, we have dozens of brands and all are growing healthily and we are even able to fund their growth,” explains CKR, adding that the company is now raring to “grow inorganically” and while he refuses to take names yet, he promises we’ll hear about new acquisition plans soon enough.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Monday, January 11, 2010

Fun for you, but they mean business

Ramanathan avers, “We are a company that is totally focused on domestic tourism. That is why we are in a way safe from global recession. Although we lost in the third quarter of last year, we covered it in the fourth quarter by focusing on customers, who have not been affected much by the slowdown like doctors, lawyers et al.” This can be well substantiated from the fact that almost all resorts of the company witnessed an occupancy rate of around 75% last year (69% members and 6% by non members). The company even successfully rolled out is Initial Public offer (IPO) last month for the expansion of some of its resorts and setting up of new projects to support its expansion strategy.

So is it all so good with MHRIL? Well, not exactly. There are few issues encompassing the credibility of the company. And the first one comes from its membership agreement. It is a long service obligation on part of both the company and its customers as the membership duration lasts for as long as 25 years where in the admission fee (60% of the total cost) and the entitlement fee (remaining 40%) needs to be paid on EMI basis. This is not only a burden on the part of the consumers for a quite elongated period, but also an obligation on the company to maintain its resorts for that stated time. The second problem for the company comes from the issue of demand seasonality and dependence on travel industry. Explains an industry analyst from Angel Broking, “The company relies on discretionary spending by consumers, which is a lot vulnerable to economic cycles.”

Meanwhile, in order to expand their portfolio now they are even looking at branding of their Spas, ‘Swastha’, so that it can be extended to cities as well. But how will that be possible when the company does not even have a pan India presence? Well, Ramnathan answers, “Currently we have around 23 resorts, but we have bought land in many parts of the country. Our focus will be to grow in India.” Presently MHRIL has resorts in the west and northern India only. Thus the challenges are humongous, but then that does not stop Ramanathan from dreaming big for his company, at least not at a time when the travel and tourism industry is set to contribute 8% to the Indian GDP.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Management guru Arindam Chaudhuri’s latest blockbuster book, Discover The Diamond In You
IIPM fights meltdown, places 2300 students By Education Mail Bureau
Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better By Swati Sharma
Events at IIPM
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON