Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
BUSINESS OF BRANDS * THE ECONOMIC TIMES MUMBAI THURSDAY 23 JULY 2009 24
REGD. NOS. MH/MR/South - 92/2009-11 RNI No. 6252/1961
Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. by R. VenkataKesavan at The Times of India Building, Dr. D. N. Road, Mumbai 400001 andprinted by him at The Times of India Suburban Press, Akruli Road, WesternExpress Highway, Kandivli (E), Mumbai - 400 101. Tel. No. (022) 6635-3535,2273-3535 Response Ph: (022) 6635-3636, 2273-3636 [email protected] Fax (022) 2273-1144 Editor : Mr. Bodhisatva Ganguli.(Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act.) Reproduction in whole or inpart without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited.
TN/Chief PMG/400/2002
Air Charge: Goa, Nagpur & via Re. 1.00, Chennai & via Rs. 3.00, Ahmedabad,Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mangalore & via Rs. 4.00, Delhi, Kolkata & via Rs. 5.00
NOT FOR SALE OUTSIDE INDIA
Subscription rates: US $ 500 (annual), US $ 250 (half yearly) US $ 125 (Quarterly).
Volume 49 No. 100
Toyota to launch newCamry next weekNEW DELHI: Toyota will launch a newedition of its luxury sedan Camry in theIndian market next week to revitalise thesales of the model. The company plans tolaunch the new Camry with somechanges in its looks after the sales of themodel fell drastically by over 75% duringthe April-June period. The new Camrywould have some additional features,including new front grille, headlamps, foglights and rear view mirrors withindicators, to attract luxury car buyers.Camry is sold in India as a completely-built-unit (CBU).
M&M’s rural focusJAIPUR: Mahindra & Mahindra is planningto drive on rural markets to push its latestpick-up Mahindra Bolero Maxitruck. M&Mvice-president (automotive sales) ArunMalhotra said the company plans a deeperreach in the rural markets to improve itssales. “We are the market leader in the pickup category with 85% of the market shareand our 80% of the revenue in thissegment comes from rural markets.”
Cookie Man productsCHENNAI: Australian brand Cookie Manhas expanded its product basket toinclude puffs, pastries and cheesecakes,apart from ice-creams, muffins andbrownies, reports Nandini Sivakumar.The company started the test launch ofthe new bakery range this April. Theproduct array is currently available atthree stores — Spencer Plaza in Chennai,Ambience Mall in Gurgaon and GVK OneMall at Hyderabad. This will be extendedto nine cities by October and go nationalin about a year’s time.
PITCH REPORT
Air India playslow-fare card tolure passengers
Our BureausMUMBAI | NEW DELHI
BELEAGUERED national carrierAir India, struggling to stay afloatafter accumulating Rs 7,200-croreloss, has announced special fareson select domestic sectors in an at-tempt to attract passengers duringthe lean season.
Announcing the special fares,Air India said that the tickets canbe bought up to three days beforeflying and would be valid till Sep-tember 20.
The all inclusive fares come intwo categories. Under the first cat-egory, a Mumbai-Hy-derabad flight wouldcost only Rs 2,079.Similarly, a Mumbai-Kochi travel wouldcost Rs 3,279 andMumbai-BangaloreRs 2,779.
The second categoryof special fares offerswould be applicable on70 select domesticroutes and exclusive of all taxes andpassenger service fee, Air India said.However, a passenger would haveto pay user development fee at air-ports where it is applicable.
In a related development, civilaviation minister Praful Patel onWednesday asked India’s flag carri-er to streamline its operation andchange its work culture.
Mr Patel said that the govern-ment was looking for acclaimedprofessionals to constitute a nation-al advisory board for the carrier.
The company is expected to getseveral independent directors on itsboard within a month.
“The national carrier wouldsoon get an organisational restruc-turing plan and will go under a ma-jor transformation in the near fu-ture,” the minister said on the side-lines of an industry conference.
The government has appointedSBI Caps to prepare a restructur-ing plan for the company. Accord-ing to a senior official in the civilaviation ministry, the financialconsultant would focus on cost-cutting, revenue enhancementsand financial restructuring.
“Soon, we would begetting feedback onwhat would be theshort-, medium- andlong-term restructuringrequired for Air India,”Mr Patel said.
A committee of secre-taries (CoS), headed byCabinet secretary, willdiscuss the airline’s re-structuring plan based
on the recommendations of SBICaps on July 25.
Apart from principal secretary tothe PM, the CoS comprises financeand aviation secretaries. Air India isalso expected to get a chief operat-ing officer (COO) who will assistthe CMD in running the airline.
“We will be having a COO whowill be assisting the CMD and willrun the airline in totality with agood team and this is what is ex-actly needed in the years tocome,” Mr Patel said.
‘Indian airline industry bit more than it could chew’D
INESH Keskar, president of Boeing In-dia, a civil aviation industry veteran whohas been dealing with airlines in India for
decades. In an interview with G GanapathySubramaniam of ET NOW, he said Boeing hasmanaged to avoid aircraft order cancellations tillnow and new orders are unlikely now. Excerpts:
Is overcapacity the one of the key fac-tors that has landed Indian airline com-panies in trouble?Most certainly. In fact, we have been sayingthat. While the growth was very good aboutthree years ago, it (Indian airline industry)did bite more then it could chew. The indus-try got too many airplanes in a hurry andthat caused a significant increase in capacity.
The growth rate was in excess of 40%, buthalf of that growth was what I consider wasorganic growth... meaning it was real, butthe other half was stimulated by very low
fares and that gave a false sort of expectationthat India is going to grow very big.
Even now, there is overcapacity to thetune of 15-20%, which is forcing everybodyto put the fares down and creating a situation where nobody is makingany money.
Does that mean cancellation oforders for aircraft manufactur-ers like Boeing?Well, we have been fortunate. Firstof all, we picked and chose our cus-tomers very carefully in India. Wedon’t expect any cancellation. Wehaven’t had any so far. We had somedeferrals in the past. Of course, when econo-my gets so bad worldwide, clearly there isgoing to be some implication, but we havebeen very successful so far in not getting anycancellation.
Do you expect Air India to retain its or-ders despite its mounting losses?Well, again as I mentioned, we have not hadany cancellation, we have not heard fromAir India that they would like to cancel any-
thing. We share the pain thatAir India is going through. Infact, Air India is not the onlyairline in the world that is suf-fering. I was at a meeting inKuala Lumpur past month,where every major airline inthe world was complainingabout the traffic going down.Air India is no exception, butthey are creating a modern
fleet and I think they will stick to their plan,if they have to reschedule some deliveries,we will certainly be able to talk to them. Sofar, we have not seen any communicationfrom them on the subject yet.
What about other customers?We have been very fortunate. We have donebusiness worth $25 billion with India, be-tween Air India, Jet Airways, SpiceJet andthree very prestigious Boeing business jets forVVIP fleet, which is flown by Indian Air Forcefor top people like the Prime Minister. As Isaid, we are focused on keeping the ordersthat we have sold and working through thecycle. I think we are very well placed for thefuture, but in the near term, we don’t expectany orders, but we are not expecting any can-cellation either.
How much time will it take for the avi-ation industry to recover globally?Internationally, it will take time. Domestical-ly, we think about 9-10 months, but a lot isgoing to depend when the US recession ends.Unfortunately, when the US sneezes thewhole world catches cold.
GROUND
RULESCivi aviationminister Praful Patelhas asked AI tostreamlineoperations andchange work culture
Dettol gains ground, Lux slipsRatna Bhushan
NEW DELHI
RECKITT Benckiser’s germ-pro-tection soap Dettol gainedmaximum value market share
among soap brands in the last 12months ended June, while HindustanUnilever saw its top-ranked brandsLifebuoy and Lux lose footing, as perdata by market researcher AC Nielsen.
Dettol’s share increased from 6.6%in June ‘08 to 7.7% in June ‘09, plac-ing it ahead of Wipro’s beauty soapSantoor as the country’s third-largestsoap brand by value. But Santoor re-tained the No 3 ranking on a cumula-tive basis during the last 12 months,with Dettol following close behind.
The Rs 7,500 crore soaps marketposted 11.8% growth in the 12-monthperiod. Soaps is estimated to the secondlargest FMCG category after detergentsin the non-foods segment.
Analysts attribute multiple reasonsfor Dettol’s growth — consistent posi-tioning on the germ-protection plat-
form, stable pricing and smaller packs.“Dettol soap has grown share to 7.7%last month — this is a rare feat in a ma-
ture category like soaps where penetra-tion is close to 100%,” Reckitt BenckiserCMD Chander Mohan Sethi said. Thebrand is available in four variants andwas extended two years ago to a smaller35-gm pack at Rs 7. The company ex-pects to cross the Rs 1,000-crore markfor Dettol by year-end.
Despite some of Bollywood’s biggeststars including Priyanka Chopra andAishwarya Rai promoting it, Hindus-tan Unilever’s beauty soap Lux saw thebiggest dip of 2.1% in value marketshare in the 12-month period endedJune. Its share stood at 15.5% at theend of last month.
Similarly, HUL’s germ-protectionbrand Lifebouy’s share dropped from17.9% to 16.6% during the last oneyear. Both Lifebuoy and Lux, however,retained the top two rankings amongsoaps. HUL has been seeing marketshare slip across categories, which ana-lysts say is because of focus on premium
products, frequent changes in pricingand lack of innovation. The firm’s value-for-money soap brand Breeze also sawits share dip in the 12-month period. Itspremium brand Dove was the only ex-ception, gaining value market share of0.4% in the past 12 months.
ITC’s Vivel, a relatively new entrant,clocked the second-highest percentageshare gain of 0.8% for the 12-monthperiod after Dettol, though on a smallerbase. Wipro’s Santoor and Godrej’sprice-warrior brand Godrej No 1 alsogained share.
“Brands that did not alter gram-mage of products or maintained pric-ing did well. Value packs at pricepoints of Rs 5 and Rs 10 saw good off-take,” Godrej Consumer Products ex-ecutive director and president Hoshi-dar Press said. Chennai-basedCholayil’s Medimix lost share of 1.7%over the last 12 months.
Lux saw its share dip by 2.1%
to 15.5%, while Lifebouy’s
share dropped to 16.6%
But both brands retained the
top two rankings among soaps
ITC’s Vivel clocked the
second-highest percentage
share gain
Wipro’s Santoor and Godrej’s
Godrej No 1 too gained share
The Rs 7,500 cr soaps market
posted 11.8% growth in the
12-month period
SOAP SAGA
Dettol’s Share Increases To 7.7%, Placing It Ahead Of Wipro’s Santoor As Third-Largest Brand By Value
Lijee PhilipMUMBAI
EVEN as the hospitality industrygrapples with a difficult year, salariesof key personnel in one of the coun-try’s largest hotel companies, IndianHotels, has risen by 20 to 30%. Ac-cording to people familiar with thedevelopment, the rise in compensa-tion levels at Indian Hotels, ownersof the Taj brand, is aimed at retainingscarce talent in a competitive world.
Indian Hotels MD Raymond Bick-son saw his salary go up by 17% to Rs5.3 crore, while that of company exec-utive director finance Anil Goel wentup by 10% to Rs 1.15 crore, accordingto the company’s latest annual report.The salary of Abhijit Mukherji, ED-hotel operations, rose by 31% to Rs 89lakh, the report added.
Salaries of other senior executivessuch as Rajiv Gujral (COO, M&A)and Jyoti Narang (COO luxury ho-tels) went up by 13% and 15% re-spectively, Indian Hotels said.
The impact from higher salaries isalso reflected in the balance sheet ofIndian Hotels. Staff costs have goneup by 25% to Rs 389 crore, accordingto the annual financial statementsfor the fiscal ended March 2009. In-cidentally, the company has put afreeze on new recruitments and alsoon posts that fell vaccant due to nat-ural attrition.
The recession worldwide has im-pacted the hospitality business withIndian Hotels’ international opera-tions taking the brunt. Revenuesfrom its overseas unit fell by more
than 23%. The company has its foot-print in the US, Europe and South-east Asia, with business from suchoperations accounting for about25% of total revenue.
Indian Hotels management con-tracts in the Middle East have sloweddown due to the financial crisis,while the company’s projects in AbuDhabi and Ras Al Khaimah havebeen on hold for a year.
The group has been using themanagement contract route to growits Vivanta and Gateway brands. Forthe Vivanta brand, the group is set-ting up projects in Gurgaon, Kakar-duma, Bekala and Pondicherry,while for the Gateway brand, proj-ects in Pune, Kolkata, Chennai,Cochin, Bangalore are expected toopen in the next couple of years.
With a global recovery widelyexpected around the end of this fis-cal, tourist inflow is expected torise, Indian Hotels said in its latestannual report.
Big hikes for Indian Hotels top brass
The 20-30% rise in
compensation levels at
Indian Hotels, owners of
the Taj brand, is aimed at
retaining scarce talent in a
competitive world
TALENT WATCH
Oriven by advancedtechnology, Toyota is
consistently surgingahead in Fl races.
TALK TO TOYOTAFo ���� & ���� WEST: MAHARASHTRA: Mumbai: Lakozy Toyota Ph: 022-32435062/63, 32433958, Madhuban Toyota Ph: 022-42439999,9819797976, Millennium Toyota Ph: 022-67359000,9987551020, Shin,ai Toyota Ph:022-66131500, 9820778255; Th��, Millemium Toyota Ph: 022-66819000, 25836470;
18 425Onrii Kolhapur:DSKTo yota Ph:0230-2465111,9881251520;Na��ur: Grace Toyota Ph:0712-26481711191/1 80;Nashik : Wasan Toyota Ph: 0253-2370700/1,2/3; ji e:DSKToyota Ph: 020-25660291, 66731111.I U UU I CHATTISGARH; 4a1 pur:Akshay Toyota Ph: 9425220412, 9425220400. GOA. Sharayu Toyota Ph; 0832-2782700-02, 9822102343. GUJARAT:Ahmedabad: infinium Toyota Ph: 9825024230, 9825024233; Baj �cjjlnfl nium Toyota Ph:9825024227, 9601280966;$j!rat: Nanavafi Toyota Ph: 0261-2223488/89, 9925018245;
DSNL Toll Fiee No. Vadodara: EastAfrica Toyota Ph: 0265-22424801590. MADHYAPRADESH: Bh oDaI: RajpaI Toyota Pf?:0755-2490001102/03, 9425017200; lndore:F�ajpaI Toyota Ph:9425059608, 9425059614;Jaba lpur: Frontier To yofaPh: 0761-2672234, 2672589, 9826120162. dentsucomm ’et mum ’13’09
+91-80-66293001 (Di�.d NO.)
