40-60% market for premium and loose in Nagpur: Shriram Agency
Girish Laxman Das Somani, head of Shriram Agency, CNF, super stockist and distributor of many agarbatti companies, believes that Vidarbha is a very good market for agarbatti products. The trend of loose products has increased a lot in the last few years, but there are a large number of people who want quality premium products in Nagpur and all the districts around it. In a conversation with Sugandh India, he said that premium products have a 40% market here and loose is in trend at 60%. Loose is very popular here in zipper and big packs. In such a situation, many branded companies like Balaji and Flourish are also giving 100 and 200 gram packs in zipper and they have a good market here. Alot of branded companies have launched 450 gram zipper packs too. He said that the notion has been created that loose products are very cheap, whereas it is not so. Branded companies are also giving tough fi ght to loose products. Also with brand comes trust for quality.
Girish Laxman Das, head of Shri Ram Agency,
said that he is the CNF of Balaji, Flourish,
Orange Aroma, Sun Temple. Apart from this,
he is the superstockistof companies like Devdarshan, Aromatic, Geeta and Good
Luck. Apart from this, he has his own manufacturing, which he supplies in selected areas. In response to a question, he said that he has been working in the Agarbatti Dhoop industry since 1998. We started with Hari Darshan 25 years ago. Followed by Padma andBalaji and became CNF agencts for entire Maharashtra. Shriram agencies is the superstockist of Vidarbha for many companies and there are more than 1000 sales counters in its marketing network with products being supplied through salesmen as well. Mr Girish told that distributors have been appointed for the rest of Maharashtra and Vidarbha. Right now he has a network of more than 200 distributors. His nephew looks after the work in Kolhapur and its surrounding areas. He has a separate network. He told that apart from Maharashtra,
he looks after the distribution of Orange Aroma up to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. We are also supplying in Karnataka. Orange Aroma is a subsidiary of Flourish.
Mr Girish told Sugandh India that he keeps monitoring his network from time to time and spends 6 hours every day in the Nagpur market, visiting the big counters and taking orders.
Apart from this, he also monitors the market by going out of Nagpur two-three times a month. The result of this is that we get information about what is happening in the market, what is the status of our own products, what new is coming in the market? All these things are known. In response to a question regarding the heavy trend of loose products in Nagpur, he said that this is not the case. Big companies are also giving packs of higher weight. Flourish too has provided 100-200 gram pack in zipper and recently they have introduced 450 gram zipper pack. He shared that the price of 100 gram pack here in zipper is ₹50. The trend of dry stick cone and cup in agarbatti and dhoop has increased but still agarbatti sells the most. If he is selling 100 boxes of agarbatti in a month, then only 5 to 10 boxes of dhoop are sold. Mr. Girish told that wet dhoop is more in demand at hawkers, street shops and food outlets. Customers other than that prefer dry stick over wet incense.
He told Sugandh India that the top five brands of agarbatti are Balaji, Flourish, Amrutha and Z Black.
Apart from this, products of all other branded companies are also sold. While, one company’s agarbatti sells more another’s dhoop, one has more sales in dry stick, another sells zipper more. Some have more sales in roll on and some sell chandan tika more. Wet dhoop is mostly sold at MRP of ₹20. Balaji and Devdarshan’s dhoop is premium. Apart from Devdarshan’s dhoop, chandan tika is also sold here. He said that quality products are sold here a lot, it is not that this is only a market for loose. Balaji, Flourish and Dev Darshan have a strong market in dhoop. Products with MRP of ₹50 are sold more and they are also of quality.
In response to a question, he said that Sambrani in box pack is sold more. Brands have a tough fight with loose cups. Sambrani cup is expensive for companies, because logistics and other charges. Products of many companies like Padma, Flourish, Balaji, Cycle etc. are sold more in Sambrani cup segment. Cycle has alot of products under prayer products segment.
Balaji dominates the premium attar roll on segment. Apart from this, there are products like Charminar and Aerocham Ratlam that are in demand. In response to a question, he shared that an average customer buys incense stick products worth around ₹ 200 per month. It is not right to say that Nagpur is only a market for loose products. There are also a large number of customers here who like premium branded products.
