02 Jul The competition is unseen – Naganand
-Liberty’s handmade incense sticks globally popular
-Mechanization has brought revolution, new laws will improve the situation
Bangalore based company Shree Vijayalakshmi Agarbatti Company Works was established on 23 March 1947. Today the company’s Liberty and Vijaya brands of incense sticks are famous in the country as well as across the globe. Today, after 75 years despite being mechanization of the industry, Liberty brand incense sticks are still handmade with locally sourced natural raw materials and fragrances. Liberty supplies not only in the country but all over the world. Naganand Karupakala , the third generation of and the head of the company, said in an interaction with Sugandha India that today everyone talks about the challenges of the incense sticks industry, but it is unknown as who or what is the real challenge?
He said that from whom the real challenge is to the incense sticks industry is not known. Whether is it the products of local companies or the multinational companies, who are doing aggressive marketing even in small districts with huge amount of money and tremendous work force. Not only this, there are a large number startups who have acquired huge amount of funds along with huge database, which they use indiscriminately. It can also be understood in this way that ‘Your immediate competitor is not your friend, your immediate competitor is unknown and unseen’. Just as Nikon Camera company once considered other camera companies like Canon as its competitors, but the real challenge it faced in the end was from smart phones! Today, in the form of a smart phone, there is a camera in every hand and the market of digital/casual cameras has ended. Talking about the history of the company, Nagananda told that his grandfather had come from Chintamani, a village 30 km from Bangalore. Initially he used to work in a clothing store. Seeing his tact, a gentleman associated with marketing field told him that you should start your own business. Following his advice, my grand father took up a sales job in an incense sticks company and used to go on marketing tours throughout the month. The owner of the company did not pay him the salary as promised. Once, when he was going to Kolkata by train for sales, a man associated with the fragrance industry asked him about incense sticks and presented him with an offer to do business. He came back home and then left the job. He had no money for the business. So my grandmother gave her jewelry and with that money grandfather started the business and named the company after his younger sister Shri Vijayalakshmi. After 7-8 years of hard work, he was able to buy back the jewels for my grandmother.
Narrating the story of his grandfather’s struggles and principles, Nagananda said that even today old suppliers tell that he himself used to roll incense sticks and even did so during the business meetings. His only basic mantra was that there is no shortcut to earn money. Earn money with respect and even today we all follow the same path. He first launched incense sticks in fragrances like sandal, rose and jasmine in the bunch packing. Later on, the Liberty Agar product was launched. Gradually our market grew in Kerala and West Bengal, as grandfather had contacts there from initial times.
Responding to a question, he said that at present, there are about 1,500 products of Liberty being sold in the domestic and foreign markets and most of them are exported. He said that the export products are made only as per the demand and choice of the consumers. The focus was on exports for the initial 20 years. Today Liberty brands are exported to about 55 countries. Many of the people who work with us overseas are from Grandfather’s time and today their even their third generation is in business with us. This is also because company does not change distributor unless there is a major dispute. It is also a matter of honesty, loyalty and trust. We have many products in the domestic market as the demand is different from place to place. The company’s white stick brand, which includes incense sticks, cones and dhoop, is sold in most of the markets in India. These products are popular in various packaging such as zippers and boxes.
On the question related to the marketing and sales of the company, he said that the company has a sales team that delivers the products to the retailers in the market, we also conduct sales meet annually with the distributor in every state. On the question regarding new laws for the industry, he said that the incense sticks of Rs 5 and Rs 10 are vanishing from the market. The market of Rs 5 is already over. Now the same is happening for Rs.10 as well. He said that ‘Make in India’ is looking tough for the industry today, but after 2-4 years the situation will get much better. For the last 40-50 years, the people of the industry were in a comfort zone.
Raw materials were available from abroad and there were no rules and regulations, but now the government has made rules. Raw material has to be sourced locally. Bamboo is also a big challenge, but now the situation is changing. There will be gradual improvement and it will be better for both the country and the industry. The results of the new rules related to the cultivation and use of bamboo in the country will be seen in the next two-three years, because the bamboo which is being cultivated will be ready in by that time. After that only its utilization will be decided. Millions of women and men work in this industry. Our own firm employs 85% women and everyone’s future will depend on it. On Liberty’s new products, he said that we started with Potpourri, Aroma Oil, Diffuser, Fragrance sachet a few years ago for home fragrance, but paused due to Covid but now it has been resumed . He said that in the past years, incense sticks are no longer a mere product of worship. Its demand has increased as a lifestyle, spa, meditation and mood and room freshener.
In foreign countries, the room freshener used come with gas which harms the ozone layer and the environment. As an alternative, people are now using incense sticks. A customer from Iran shares how he uses incense sticks when they invite people over dinner as the fragrance makes the guests feel good and positive. This trend has increased. On the issues and difficulties faced in making handmade incense sticks, Naganand said that a revolution has come in the agarbatti industry during the last 10 years. Machines have made a big difference and the whole nature of business has changed. Multinational companies, who have a lot of funds have also hopped in, whereas earlier it was a very small domestic industry. There was a certainty, but now it is not. The big companies with machines have started making incense sticks on a large scale, which is a big turning point but still the trend of handmade incense sticks is very much presence in the country as well as abroad.
He said that Flora incense sticks are handmade and there is still a huge demand for traditional handmade incense sticks all over South India including Karnataka, as their quality cannot be matched by machine made incense sticks. Handmade incense sticks are made in our company and some semi automatic machines are also used. Even today, in our perfumes, the raw batti is dipped by hand, because that fragrance cannot come from the machines and neither can that kind of raw material be used on the machines. This is the reason why handmade is still number one in aroma and quality.
In response to a question, he said that it is not that only machine made incense sticks will prevail. There are still people who love handmade. So both will work. Similarly, due to bamboo being considered inauspicious, the demand for dhoop has increased in comparison to incense sticks. The cone trend has also started. The dhoop market has grown by 20 percent in the last few years. But still it is lacking behind incense sticks. The trend of dry stick has also started. He told that Liberty’s incense sticks are in the range of Rs 5 to Rs 200. Now the production cost of Rs 5 higher than the MRP, due to the increasing price of raw materials, but the demand for cheap will always remain in the market.
No Comments