Wipro consumer products

Wipro pads up with Kumble

 

Cashing in on the cricket fever is yet another brand with a new campaign. What is novel this time is that it's a women's brand that is tapping into the Indian cricket craze. With female viewership of cricket on the rise,

Wipro Consumer Care has roped in former Indian captain Anil Kumble in an ad campaign to promote its soap brand Santoor during the coming cricket season.

With the cricket fever on in the country, Wipro believe that there would be a quicker brand recall and it would be top-of-mind for consumers. 

The cricket season being longer this summer (18-20 weeks) with both the World Cup and IPL being played back-to-back, the company is looking at leveraging the captive audiences for the matches. The Company also feel female viewer-ship of cricket is increasing and wanted to be one of the early brands to cash in on that factor.

The soap brand has been using the context of “mistaken age” for more than 15 years now and has been running campaigns with Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Madhavan.

AMWAY

Nutrilite seen as Rs 2,500-cr brand by 2012

  

                                                                 

Amway India expects its nutritional brand Nutrilite to achieve sales of Rs 2,500 crore in India by end-2012.

Nutrilite will easily cross Rs 1,000 crore by the end of this year. With the launch of new products, The Company is targeting sales of Rs 2,500 crore from the brand by 2012.

The company made its foray into the kids' nutritional category, and launched five products under Nutrilite. The brand currently contributes Rs 900 crore to its over all sales. Globally, the brand is worth Rs 14,450 crore.

the nutritional business to grow 25 per cent annually in India, while the overall sales growth is likely to be around 18 per cent.

The nutrition and wellness category contributes around 50 per cent of Amway's sales in India. Last year, the company had a turnover of Rs 1,790 crore.

Currently, Nutrilite has a share of around 19 per cent in the around Rs 2,500-crore Indian dietary-supplementary market. The other leading brands are from Dabur, Nestle and GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare.

DTH providers sales pitch

DTH providers raise sales pitch

From providing advertisement-free coverage of cricket matches through high definition (HD) feed, lowering entry price to offering sports channels for free, DTH (direct-to-home) providers are showering offers. Introduced first during the FIFA World Cup last year, HD-enabled channels have become popular amongst subscribers for their better picture and sound clarity.

To attract more customers, Dish TV has increased the number of HD channels from four to 30. It has also lowered its entry price from Rs 2,990 to Rs 2,330 and clubbed the HD coverage of French Open tennis tournament to sweeten the offer.

DTH service providers such as Tata Sky Ltd, Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV and Reliance Digital TV have acquired rights for HD coverage of matches. HD coverage is available at an extra cost of around Rs 150 over the package cost.

GROWING DEMAND:

Airtel DTH  expecting an increasing number of subscribers to opt for the HD format. The company is expecting a 15 per cent increase in subscriber base during this cricket season.

Reliance Digital TV also confirmed a rising sales graph. The company has sold more connections in the first two weeks of February than the combined sales of December and January. the company is expecting to end this month with 40 per cent growth in subscription over the combined sales of December and January.

Reliance has introduced round-the-clock customer support facilities to redress any transmission problems.

PRICE WAR:

Meanwhile, Sun Direct, which is providing standard definition feed, has unleashed a price war. The company is offering free sports channels for “long term” (6-12 months) subscribers. For other subscribers, sports channel prices have been pegged lower than competitors'.

Subscribers buy sports channels during events and not annually. Sun DTH expect the offer to go down well.

Maruti Suzuki to Volkswagen

Maruti Suzuki to supply A-star to Volkswagen

                                               

India's largest automobile company Maruti Suzuki will supply its latest compact car A-Star to Volkswagen AG . The car, which will undergo some modifications and design changes, will be sold in India and Asian markets under a new brand, according to senior officials in the automobile industry.

The agreement to supply A-Star, Suzuki's fifth global model after Swift, Ritz, SX4 and Grand Vitara will be inked soon. Volkswagen holds 20% stake in Maruti's parent company Suzuki.

Volkswagen's decision to choose A-Star comes after two years of Maruti's success of supplying A-Star to another Japanese carmaker Nissan Motors, which re-badges the same car as Pixo for sales through its own network in Europe. 

A-Star sold as Alto in overseas markets is exclusively made by Maruti Suzuki at its Manesar plant in Haryana. It's a futuristic product specifically developed by parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) for developed markets meeting all its stringent crash safety tests, emission norms and environment regulations.

Maruti's engineering team would work closely with VW to tweak the car as per its global market needs, said a senior official from the automobile industry. There could be some changes in the basic design though the overall technical specs won't be altered.

Food processing sector

Food processing sector gets 576-crore FDI

The food processing sector attracted Rs 576 crore of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first eight months of the fiscal as compared to total FDI of Rs 5,344.22 crore.

In the thick of the recent food inflation, the government had also widened the scope of service tax exemption to include foodgrains and pulses in addition to fruits, vegetable, eggs and milk. The Centre is keen on projecting FDI in the food processing industries, where 100% FDI is already allowed.

Besides attracting FDI through schemes like mega food park, the government has also extended several fiscal incentives during this financial year to enhance FDI in food processing sector, including full exemption from excise duty for specified equipments to preserve, store or transport apiary , horticultural, dairy, poultry, aquatic and marine produce and meat and its processing products.

Project imports status, with concessional rate of basic customs duty of 5%, has been granted for the initial setting up or substantial expansion of a cold storage , cold room (including farm pre-coolers ) for preservation or storage or an industrial unit for processing of agricultural, apiary, horticultural, dairy, poultry, aquatic and marine produce and meat.

While truck refrigeration units manufacturing refrigerated vans/trucks have been fully exempted from basic customs duty, exemption from service tax has been provided to a host of services. These include ‘erection, commission or installation’ of mechanised foodgrains handling equipment for setting up or substantial expansion of cold storage and machinery/equipment for initial setting up or substantial expansion of units for processing of agricultural, dairy, poultry , aquatic, marine or meat products.