The Hindu Business Line : Tinplate Co to cash in on retail sector growth

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Kolkata March 7 The growth in the retail sector will provide a boost to the fortunes of companies such as Tinplate Company of India Ltd (TCIL). To leverage on the opportunity, TCIL is working closely with brand owners with a view to helping them "enhance the equity of their brands by using our tinplate", according to Mr Bushen Raina, Managing Director.

Mr Raina told Business Line that, as part of a backward-integrated marketing strategy, TCIL was focussed on "capturing the perception of consumers and taking it to brand owners". The idea is to work together with brand owners and offer packaging solutions that best meet the expectations of consumers. Towards this end, the company has set up a "Solutions Centre" with its own lacquering and printing facilities in Jamshedpur. A prominent marketing consultant and A.G. Nielsen have been engaged "to capture the perceptions of consumers and offer them to brand owners". Already, TCIL is working together with brand owners such as Colgate and Adani.

"The market dynamics have changed. To augment market share, we have to be solutions-driven instead of being product-driven. TCIL is focussed on evolving into a solutions provider and lead the value chain in delivering innovative, cost-effective and consumer-convenient packaging solutions. The Solutions Centre will help us actualise this strategic objective and function as a catalyst for us to work more closely with brand owners," Mr Raina said.

According to him, the growth in retailing would provide a thrust to food processing and was bound to change consumer preference. Packaged food producers have the option to choose from packaging materials such as tinplate, glass, aluminium and carton boxes. Globally, as in India, 65-70 per cent of the food products are packaged in tinplate, thanks to the product being eco-friendly and its ability to retain properties of food for years.

"There's great opportunity ahead of us. However, we cannot market tinplate as we have in the last 80-odd years. We need to work together with our customers and devise long-term solutions for packaging and branding," he said.

TCIL accounts for 35 per cent of the domestic market for tinplate, the size of which is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore. The company has begun work on augmenting the capacity at its Jamshedpur plant to 380,000 tonnes per annum by March 2008 at an estimated investment of Rs 210 crore. The company presently exports 30 per cent of its production to countries in the Far East, Middle East, China and Europe "as part of our strategic intent to emerge as a regional player," Mr Raina said.