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K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad, Nov. 24 The next time when you visit a retail petrol outlet or your LPG gas dealer don’t be surprised if they try to sell a pack of tea to you!

Nearly 60 years after taking over the reins from the British ownership, Duncans Tea Limited, has decided to change from the distributor-centric sales to a multi-channel distribution.

“In the traditional model, the time-to-delivery to the customer is taking longer time. The depot-distributor-retailer-consumer is not able to fully tap the emerging opportunity,” says Mr M.C. Appaiah, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Duncans Tea.

“So, we have decided to open up new channels which include the extensive reach of BPCL, HPCL’s LPG customer network, Railway catering (IRCTC) and modern retail formats. These special channels would cut down the time-to-market of the products by 50 per cent,” he told Business Line.

He was here to take part in the three-day Tea and Coffee World Cup Asia being held here.

The company charted a marketing plan that aims both at the super premium and the low-end of the segments this financial year. The plan also includes the revamp of packaging and blends and relaunching of the brands.

The company, which holds a four per cent market share in Rs 4,000-crore packet tea market, hopes to achieve five per cent in the super premium segment. The segment is one-eighth of the 2.74 lakh tonne packet-tea market in the country.

The company, which registered a turnover of Rs 180 crore and volumes of 12,500 tonnes in 2007-08, is growing at 16 per cent.

“We are targeting to achieve 5 per cent market share in the super premium segment by 2009-10. Also, we are looking at the emerging opportunity of tea bags by launching health flavours,” he said.

More Stories on : Tea | Channels and Franchises

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