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Anna Peter

Mumbai , Oct. 7

PRS Permacel Private Ltd's initiative to tackle counterfeiting, Kavach, has garnered business worth 15 per cent of its annual turnover of about Rs 40 crore.

Kavach — a holistic system for brand protection in India, was launched in January. Over the last year, it has also had technical tie-ups with firms in Europe and the UK.

The FMCG industry in the country is estimated to lose over Rs 2,600 crore every year to fake goods. In rural areas, the incidence of piracy is estimated at four times that of urban India. The initiative offers manufacturers technical solutions and tries to raise awareness among end manufacturers, consumers, dealers and sales staff and supports the drive for more legal and regulatory intervention to deter `brand attack'.

It begins with the identification of the product's current security problems. A consultant evaluates the security needs of the product, leading to the development of a customised brand protection system.

According to Mr N.S. Shenoy, Vice-President (Marketing), PRS Permacel, the company's primary focus is on 5-6 industries, such as auto components, consumer durables, pharmaceutical and FMCG — mainly representing high volume products. It tries to incorporate changes in the product packaging and other features as often as is done in currency notes. For counterfeiters, it takes as little as 6 months to copy new changes to products and packaging.

Mr Shenoy said that it was essential to involve the consumer in checking whether the product was genuine, for instance, features such as scratch or peel in the packaging or providing reward programmes at the sales promotion itself.

According to a brand protection consultant, one way for companies to protect their brand was to either strengthen their distribution chains, conduct regular raids on spurious manufacturers and their vendors, and educating consumers on counterfeit products. Consumer education, he said, was a neglected area because of the costs it was likely to involve.

For Permacel, a key feature of Kavach will be the introduction of a secret feature or two in the `protected' product. This will be known by perhaps 2-3 key members of the organisation and Kavach executives will act as expert witnesses if legal action is initiated against copycat manufacturers.

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