The Hindu Business Line : Supplyco takes steps to counter threat from private retailers

Kochi, Dec. 11 The State-owned Civil Supplies Corporation, popularly known as Supplyco, has geared up to meet challenges posed by the entry of big corporate houses into the retail market by introducing various novel measures to enhance customer confidence.

The first and foremost step in this regard is the decision to take back the goods once sold by Supplyco outlet, departing from the old and common condition that “Goods once sold will not be taken back”. Supplyco has changed this clause to read “Goods once sold will be taken back” by deleting the word “not”, Mr Yogesh Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, told Business Line.

The new initiative, which was introduced recently, has not only enhanced the customer confidence but also increased the sales by 25 per cent. Customers can now return the goods, which will be replaced and if they insist, the amount will be refunded, he added.

Likewise, it was also decided to extent the Privilege Card benefit in all its 1,500 outlets and get avail a discount of 2 per cent on all purchases. Earlier, the card benefit could be got only at the outlet where from the card was purchased.

According to Mr Gupta, all products supplied through the Supplyco outlets are HACCP and Agmark certified.

“We are also insisting on certification for all other supplies made by other companies. It has also taken steps to link the supply chain source traceability, which is an important component in ISO 22000. So far, no retail chain group in the country has gone for ISO 22000,” he said.

“We have also resorted to economic order quantity for inventory management, which will help in maintaining a steady level of inventory preventing excess and shortage,” he added. The e-tendering process, that has been introduced to bring transparency in all kinds of purchases, has been a tremendous success. However, lack of identity of the supplier is one of the deficiencies and the company will soon be going to have digital signature to find out the identity of the supplier, Mr Gupta said.

Referring to the financial performance, the CMD said that the turnover of Supplyco is expected to touch Rs 1,200 crore in 2007-08 as against Rs 1,000 crore registered last year. Moreover, for the first time in the history, the Corporation will achieve a marginal profit of Rs4 crore by the end of this fiscal, he said.

e-retailing

Besides air conditioning the Panampilly Nagar Super Market, Supplyco is ready to introduce e-retailing in this outlet on a pilot basis, which would be extended to other outlets depending upon the success. The delivery of goods will be free of cost. There are also plans to open hyper markets in Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Thallassery.

More Stories on : Retailing | PSU | Tamil Nadu

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