Sep 19 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
ITC to Enter Homes, in the Name of God
Writankar Mukherjee
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Kolkata:
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The ingredients are all there in this sacred space: a big consumer market that no large company has managed to dominate, the ongoing festive season, daily rituals to please the gods, and social media savvy youngsters as potential customers.ITC, the FMCG, tobacco, packaging, paper and hotels conglomerate, is set to plunge into the .
`6,000-7,000 crore home worship or pooja market with incense products — an extension of its agarbatti business. In a soft launch, it has brought out packaged sambrani or dhuno, dhoops and combo packs of agarbatti stands, diyas and candles, along with its line of Mangaldeep agarbattis.
As it did during Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra, ITC will also launch limited edition packs of Mangaldeep agarbattis with pictures of gods and goddesses, which it says are sacred enough to find a place in pooja rooms in millions of homes across the country. It is also evaluating other associated product categories such as kumkum and haldi.
“Since ITC has already been operating in the agarbatti space for the last 10 years with a ready supply chain, including supplies to temples, specialty pooja stores and grocery stores, the extension of the agarbatti brand Mangaldeep into other pooja products is a big potential area,“ said VM Rajasekharan, ITC chief executive (agarbatti business).
The use of The use of aromatic substances is an ancient tradition in India. Fragrances play a key role in Hindu religious rituals, where offerings include flowers, sweets and diyas (lamps).These substances have evolved over the years into their present-day avatars such as agarbatti or incense sticks and dhoops.
`6,000-7,000 crore home worship or pooja market with incense products — an extension of its agarbatti business. In a soft launch, it has brought out packaged sambrani or dhuno, dhoops and combo packs of agarbatti stands, diyas and candles, along with its line of Mangaldeep agarbattis.
As it did during Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra, ITC will also launch limited edition packs of Mangaldeep agarbattis with pictures of gods and goddesses, which it says are sacred enough to find a place in pooja rooms in millions of homes across the country. It is also evaluating other associated product categories such as kumkum and haldi.
“Since ITC has already been operating in the agarbatti space for the last 10 years with a ready supply chain, including supplies to temples, specialty pooja stores and grocery stores, the extension of the agarbatti brand Mangaldeep into other pooja products is a big potential area,“ said VM Rajasekharan, ITC chief executive (agarbatti business).
The use of The use of aromatic substances is an ancient tradition in India. Fragrances play a key role in Hindu religious rituals, where offerings include flowers, sweets and diyas (lamps).These substances have evolved over the years into their present-day avatars such as agarbatti or incense sticks and dhoops.
