The Hindu Business Line : ITC Aim `world's largest' matches brand

Speaking to Business Line here, Mr Rajeev Gopal, CEO, SBU-Safety Matches Business, said the company would look at innovation in product and packaging to achieve that goal.

One of the company's brands, Aim, has become the world's largest selling brand in just the one-and-a-half years that the matches division had come into being, he claimed. The brand sold 150 million matchboxes last month and was growing every month, he said. Competing brand Ship (from Wimco), which is sold in seven countries, sells about 100 million boxes (including 70 million in India and 10 million in Brazil), he added.

India is the largest market for matches; two billion matchboxes are produced every month and the consumer spend is Rs 1,300 crore per year, he explained.

Branding, which would highlight the quality and safety standards of brands, is necessary to protect the local industry from being buffeted by international brands once the free trade provisions of the WTO and the South Asian Free Trade Agreement kicked in over the next two years, Mr Gopal said. There was a real threat from the neighbouring countries' manufacturers who are poised to rush in. ITC now has a 9 per cent market share while the only other brand in the organised sector, Wimco, has 13 per cent, he said.

ITC markets a range of brands which include Mangaldeep, Aim, VaxLit, i Kno and Delite. It outsources from 44 units spread over Sivakasi, Kovilpatti, Sathur and Gudiyattam in Tamil Nadu.