Ujjwala scheme has been very beneficial to cooker market: TT Jagannathan, TTK Prestige
New Delhi   04-Sep-2018

We are going very slow with Judge because we do not want it to cannibalise the Prestige brand name, TT Jagannathan, Chairman, TTK PrestigeNSE -2.97 %, tells ET Now. Edited excerpts: With urban India being close to fully penetrated, cooker segment is seeing a slower growth. Do you believe that the government’s Ujjwala scheme will help open up the rural market for the industry? When do you expect to see meaningful benefits emerge out of that? I not only believe that the Ujjwala scheme will be very beneficial to the cooker market, it has already happened. We have had very good three months in the rural areas and finally cooker growth has started breaching high single digits if not low double digits.

You have been an urban oriented brand so far. What is your strategy to take advantage of the Ujjwala Scheme and capture rural market share? We will get where the consumer is and we will get there quickly. You will be spending more in terms of promotions and advertising as a percentage of sales to capture that market share because there would be competition from some of the unorganised players in the segment? No, we advertise heavily and our advertisements reach rural areas also. Earlier, there was no buying in the rural areas. Now, people have started buying. What is the response that you have received from your product ‘Judge’ because it competes with the unorganised players? What is your current market share and what are your expectations in future quarters? We are going very slow with Judge because we do not want it to cannibalise the Prestige brand name. We have started it only in two states and that too very slowly. We have to get our feet wet, find out how it is going before we roll it our nationally. The next focus area is cleaning solutions. Here also, there’s a very high presence of unorganised players. What is your strategy here? Will it be under the TTK brand? Yes, under the Prestige brand only. What will be the strategy here? Yes, that is why an organised player will have a great chance because the consumer wants something he can depend on and we will be able to assure that.

What exactly are the rollout plans, are the products already in the market? They are already in the market, we have already rolled out nationally and it is available in every market in India already. I believe you are targeting to get 10% of your revenues from this segment. How much contribution are you expecting on the margin front? The margin will be similar to our margin on other products -- 10% revenue we are expecting only in the fifth year. What has been the impact of the Kerala floods? Onam sales must have been hit. As the state starts the rebuilding process, do you expect sales to come back? That is exactly what it is. August was impacted and we expect to make up the loss in September, October and November as the state rebuilds its economy. Do you expect the demand numbers to look like what they were in the summer months or could there be a bit of a slowdown there? Better than that. Are you hoping for a big bumper increase in demand and have you run through some numbers there? No, I refuse to give estimates now.

You recently received some of your first export orders from the US and Europe. How do you expect exports to pan out and also scale up? Where did you hear that? We have been exporting to US and Europe for the past 25 years. We did not receive our first order now and our exports doubled over the last year. How much do you expect exports to contribute to your overall revenues? About 5% this year.