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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, Aug. 25 The Rs 400-crore Mumbai-based Hamilton Housewares, makers of the Milton thermoware brand, is diversifying into writing instruments under the brand name — Claro. It would be manufacturing a range of gel and ball-point pens targeting the youth under its brand.

Mr Ajay Vaghani, Managing Director, Hamilton Housewares told Business Line, “We already have our manufacturing strengths in plastic with our Milton range of plastic house ware. The synergies in manufacturing plastic would be used as we foray into writing instruments. Our brand Claro is meant for the youth and would be specifically targeting students.”

The new plant at Silvassa would assist the company as it forays into the writing instruments segment. At the same time, Hamilton Housewares is also planning to buy assets of an Italian company in the same line of business. “We are in talks with a stationery company based in Italy and would be buying into their assets. The purpose is to build a stationery brand overseas.”

The Rs 1,500-crore Indian stationery market is currently dominated by brands such as Camlin, Linc and Montex. Mr Vaghani added, “It is still premature to talk about our international acquisition but we would be having two stationery brands catering to the respective markets.”

With its household brand such as Milton (Insulated thermoware) and Treo (glassware), Hamilton Housewares would be building a new distribution network to cater to its new line of business. “There would be a separate distribution chain set up for our writing instruments business as the Claro brand would be to be sold in separate outlets,” stated Mr Vaghani.

Meanwhile, in spite of having a strong distribution network for its household products, the company is planning to sell its brands through the Net. “We did think of getting into direct selling earlier but now we have decided to make our brands available through the net with an exclusive site for the company as the market has evolved,” said Mr Vaghani.

Entering into new distribution arrangements, Hamilton Housewares has recently tied up with the US-based glassware brand — Libbey. Through its tie up with Libbey, the company would be entering the food service products industry whereby it would have separate distribution channel to cater to hotels and restaurants.

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