The Hindu Business Line : Godfrey Phillips aims seven-fold increase in exports over 10 years

GODFREY Phillips, the second largest player in the domestic cigarette industry with a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore, aspires to equal its international volumes to domestic volumes over the next 10 years.

This means a near seven-fold increase in the company's exports over the next decade, given that Godfrey's export volumes currently constitutes just 15 per cent of its domestic volumes of nearly one billion sticks per annum.

"Though the task is gigantic" Godfrey Phillips' Chief Executive Officer - International, Mr Amrish Anand, is confident of achieving this target as the company has plans to export to 40 countries during this period as against 9 countries at present.

"Our vision is to become a leading tobacco player in India and beyond," Mr Anand told Business Line.

According to him, the company will be commissioning its Rs 520-crore advanced manufacturing facility near Delhi in February 2005. "The new six-tonne per hour capacity plant has been set up basically to benchmark ourselves as the manufacturers of the best global brands," he said.

Mr Anand said that the company had been recently restructured to form domestic and international divisions, each headed by an independent CEO. It would not only export its existing brands but also manufacture separate brands of cigarettes for the export market.

"We have a number of brands in our armour," he said, adding that the company had recently launched a brand in Guinea.

Godfrey Phillips has two major stakeholders, the K.K. Modi group and Phillip Morris. Besides Delhi, the company has a manufacturing unit and a research and development centre in Mumbai. The company's popular brands in the country are Red and White, Four Square, Jaisalmer, Cavenders, Tipper and Prince. It has 484 exclusive distributors across the country supplying to over 8-lakh retail outlets.

Mr Anand said that export volumes in 2003-04 registered a 36 per cent growth over the previous year. The company's export turnover last fiscal stood at Rs 28 crore. Overall, the company had registered a 8.3 per cent growth last year as against the industry growth rate of 4.4 per cent.

In 2002, Godfrey Phillips had entered into a tie-up with Altadis USA, the world's largest cigar company, for import of cigars into India.

Following this, the company had launched a range of cigar brands such as Don Diego, Santa Damiana, Hav-a-Tampa and Phillies.

Mr Anand said that the company's sale of cigars in the domestic market had grown three-fold in the past one year. Today, it has 50 per cent share in machine made cigars and 35 per cent in the hand-rolled cigars. However, with cigar smoking just picking up in India, the company's turnover from cigar sales last year had been just over Rs 1 crore.

The company had organised a cigar rolling session by cigarmaster Ms Jessica Maria Travieso Irizarry, of the Dominican Republic, here on Tuesday.