Strong Market for ₹50-100 Products in Ahilyanagar:Kantilal Kothari
Nav Champa Agencies has been engaged in the agarbatti and dhoop business in Ahilyanagar for several decades. Mr. Kantilal Kothari, head of the firm, told Sugandh India that agarbatti and dhoop products with an MRP of ₹50 and ₹100 have the largest market here. Packs priced at ₹10 and ₹20 sell in comparatively lower quantities. He said that the main reason is that a ₹10 pack contains only 10 agarbatti sticks, which requires customers to return for another purchase within 2-4 days. Therefore, people have increasingly shifted towards buying ₹50 zipper packs. Responding to a question about consumer preferences, he said that all types of fragrances perform well in this market. Customers particularly prefer fruity notes, Champa, Mogra and fancy fragrances.
speaking to Sugandh India, Mr Kantilal said that his father started this business in Ahilyanagar. In 1987, he was engaged in the food products business, but later focused entirely on agarbatti distribution. The business began by purchasing products from local markets in Pune and Ahilyanagarand reselling them. As the business expanded, distributorships were acquired. The first agency was secured in 1990 for Nandini.
Today, apart from Nandini, they hold agencies for Sachde, Punebased Real Fragrance, Srinivas Sugandhalaya (Satya), Aloukik, Amrita, Utsav, Somnath, Nishan, Mansi, Jain Products Ratlam andJayant Agarbatti, along with 30-35 companies in total.
Mr Kantilal informed that he oversees business across the entire Ahmednagar district and serves more than one thousand wholesale customers. According to him, wet and dry dhoop account for 30-35% of the market, while agarbatti still contributes 65-70% of sales. Through their retail and wholesale counters, brands such as Nandini, Amrutha, Alaukik, Utsav, Real, Satya, Somnath, Big Safari and Zed Black record strong sales. In the premium wet dhoop segment, Real’s ₹50 product is particularly popular. Nishan also enjoys good demand. He added that in the Sambrani cup category, Satya, Nishan, Nikhil and Cycle’s Naivedya products registered strong sales.
Responding to a question regarding the popularity of Chandan Tika products, he said that Krishna Murari and Nashik-based Mauli perform well in his market. Speaking about the camphor category, he said that loose camphor has a larger market share.
However, in the branded segment, products from 333, Mangalam and Nandini, along with several brands from Nashik and Sangli, are sold through his retail counter. In response to a question, he said that 3-4 out of every 10 customers purchase products by brand name.
Most customers buy products based on our recommendation and trust. Their primary expectation is that the product should offer good quality. He further stated that an average customer purchases products worth around ₹100 per month, although there is virtually no spending limit among buyers of premium products. This is an excellent market for high-quality agarbatti products.
