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After having a licensing agreement for 30 years, Mumbai-based Flair Pens has now bought the manufacturing and marketing rights to Pierre Cardin’s writing business in India.
It will now invest up to ₹200 crore to resurrect the brand and expand manufacturing capacity across Maharashtra and Daman.
Sumit Rathod, Executive Director, Flair Pens, said, “We have assigned a capex of ₹100 crore towards Pierre Cardin and moved from the earlier licensing arrangement to becoming the owners of the brand in India.
“Besides, an additional ₹70 crore has been spent on acquiring the brand for the Indian market. In the past year, we set up a new unit in Naigaon in Maharashtra and Daman for Pierre Cardin and have enhanced capacities from 40,000 to one lakh units for the brand.”
Premium imageAfter becoming brand owners of Pierre Cardin, attempts are now being made to retain its premium image. Flair Pens will now be doubling the price points for Pierre Cardin to enhance margins and compete with Parker, its nearest competitor.
Pierre Cardin pens, which currently sell at up to ₹1,500 a piece, will soon sport a more premium range at almost double the price.
“We want to raise the brand value under the Pierre Cardin range and take up the price points to straddle a larger range. Just like Parker, we will have a mass as well as a premium range,’’ said Rathod.
Higher turnoverCurrently, Pierre Cardin pens have a turnover of ₹40 crore, with 4,000 distributors. “With additional capacity at the new manufacturing bases we expect to raise the turnover of Pierre Cardin to ₹75 crore.”
The Mumbai-based ₹500-crore Flair Pens has been resisting selling out to international players and bucking the trend by most players in the segment such as Camlin (Kokoyo) and Cello (Bic).
Apart from Pierre Cardin, it continues to distribute international brands such as Pentel from Japan and Hauser from Germany and has also bought the rights for the latter.
The ₹4,500-crore organised writing instruments category has been growing at 8-10 per cent, and Flair Pens claims to be the second-largest player after Cello.
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