Vijayawada and Hyderabad Market Visit

Objective:

To understand and observe the Andhra Pradesh market.

Introduction:

Andhra Pradesh is a well-established market since it operates from Vijayawada city in Krishna District and Hyderabad. The entire supply is carried from these depots (including Hindupur) to rest of the state.

The number of days I was on the market visit was for 6 days (13.4.2015 to 18.4.2015) and it was categorized into

Vijayawada (13.4.2015 to 15.4.2015) Hyderabad (16.4.2015 to 18.4.2015)

Vijayawada

On 13.4.2015

The total distributors in Vijayawada are 8 including 1 to rural and the other to MTO. Visited BECENT and SACHINARAYANA PURAM Market accompanied by SO Mr.Sudhakar and an SR Anjaneyulu. DNL Agencies is the distributor and has 280 outlets in market.

I visited around 20 outlets and observed patience is a must for taking orders and there are few outlets who give some bulk orders just by spending some time with them and there some satisfactory orders and few times there is no orders from the retailers.

A daily of 25000-35000 average orders are made each day. On this date there was

Three in One – 27400 Lia – 10500

I found out that our competitors are

1. ITC2. Ambica Durbar3. Moksha (10 rupee pouch)

Our product Mohak Durbar is slow moving in the market due to heavy competition from Ambica and other is due to the color scheme of the packet and the quality of the cover.

There are different schemes for different products like

Cycle Three in one Group Products Lia Group Products

After Lunch had been to the depot VIJAYAWADA DEPOT located in Auto Nagar and met the Depot Manager Mr. Srinivas and got to know that it has turnover of over 2cr. This includes 9 districts.

Krishna District and West Godavari has

1 SO – Sudhakar 8 SR’s and 2 ISR’s

On 14.4.2015

Visited Yelur market which has around 250 outlets and is the Hometown of Ambica our competitor and since someone in the location had expired the market was closed and I went to Bhimavaram market. But I got some details before leaving Yelur.

There are 2 distributors

Devi Agencies for Three In One (3, 00,000sales) which has 100-120 outlets . Raja Rajeshwari for Lia (60,000sales) which has 120-130 outlets.

There are 3 SR’s here

Manikanta for 3 in 1 Ali for Lia Srinivas (Bhimavaram Town)

Had been to Bhimavaram town which has 240outlets with Ali and visited around 15outlets and understood that it was a market with small potential and the monthly sales is

Three in One – 1,20,000per month

Lia – 30,000-40,000 per month

The key competitors are

1. ITC Mangaldeep2. Moksha Pouch3. Ambica

On 15.4.2015

Visited Guntur which has 480 outlets with Sales Officer Mr. K Venkateshwar and Sales Representative B Poornachandra. Guntur is divided into 2 segments

Town 1 Town 2

The distributors in Town 1 are

1. SAI Marketing Service is headed by Mr. Balaji for THREE IN ONE and monthly sales is 8,00,000

2. Mahima Marketing Service headed by Mr.Dinakar for LIA and the monthly sales is 2,00,000

I observed the main running products are NVSW, NC72 and Good luck 10rupee pouches.

The distributors in Town 2 are

1. Vijayalakshmi Agencies for 3in 1 and the total monthly sales is 1,50,0002. Poorna Agro Food Products for Lia and the total monthly sales is 1,50,000

The total number of outlets in Town 2 is 280.

I had visited around 45 outlets in eluru bazaar and Bandala bazaar out of which we got orders in 17 outlets and the total sales on day was 61,000rupees

Competitors:

Ravi Products (Local) Samprani Cups from Gayathri Group (Local) ITC Mangaldeep of 15rupees which has 20pieces.

Mohak Durbar had complaints about Fungus and Quality of packing after launch.

Bhavani Trading Company owner Mr.Kameshwar Rao had positives to speak for our company and said our company evolved by stability and vision of the future. Lakshmi Balaji retailer had placements of our SPPL products as well.

Few retailers were asking for the gift items and some had billing issues. Some said that there were less number of sticks when compared to other competitors and our staffs said we have quality which the competitors lack.

I left to Hyderabad from Vijayawada on 15.4.2015

Hyderabad

On 16.4.2015

Visited Malakpet gunj with Sales Officer Mr.Mallikarjun and Sales representative Sathish Kumar which has 55outlets combining both retail and wholesale market. During my visit the total sales on the day was

3 in 1contributed 98,000rupees from 22outlets Lia contributed 34,000rupees from 16 outlets

There is a monthly total average sale of Rs.3, 00,000 for 3 in 1 and Rs.1, 00,000 for Lia. There are 30 total distributors including Lia and Three In One.

There is one Sales Officer – Mallikarjun 3 SR’s and 3 ISR’s reporting to Mallikarjun

Competition

1. ITC Mangaldeep2. Padmini3. Ullas Agarbhatties(They give more margin for retailers)4. Ambica in Durbar Bhatti’s

I observed that there were placements for Lia Products but their movement was very slow. There were complaints about gift coins not received.

On 17.4.2015

Had to visit Kukkatpally but visited Pragathi Nagar due to heavy traffic which has about 45 outlets with Sales Office Mr. Shiva and Sales representative Gopal. This market had less potential for our products. The total product sales on the day of my visit was 16,000 rupees order from 20 outlets and the monthly average sales is about 32,000 rupees.

Key

3 in 1 contributes for about 90% and Lia 10% in this market ITC Mangaldeep and Ambica are the main competitors Movement of our products is low due to ITC Mangaldeep which gives

80sticks for 20rupee MRP.

Sales Officer Mr. Shiva has 2SR’s and 2 ISR’s reporting to him.

The Distributors

Lahari Enterprises for 3 in 1 S.V Enterprises for Lia

On 18.4.2015

Visited Nacharam and Mallapur market accompanied by S.S.O Mr.Raghashiva, SR Haribabu and Distributor Salesman Ramesh which has about 45 outlets

Competitor

ITC Mangaldeep Padmini

Key

No Order Sales Ready Stock Supply

Here the retailers purchase directly from the wholesalers. Major running product is TINT and TINM.

The total sales order on the day was 12,500rupees.The Average sale is 80,000rupees monthly and Three in One only.

Observation

Our Product Is a Quality Product Placement is there for our products in every outlets specially 3 in 1 We have repeated customers 3 in 1 is the main contributor with 78%

TINM contributes 34% and TINT contributes 25% in Three in One price points

Major contributors in 3 in 1 group product family after 3 in 1 is Sandalum and Goodluck.

There is different promotional schemes for both Lia and Three in One products

In the entire tour after visiting a number of outlets the main competitors are1. ITC 2. Ambica3. Moksha

I have seen a new competitors entry in Guntur Sujatha Agarbhatties and Ravi Sandals from MSR Natarajan Bros and Co. of MRP 25 which weighs 40gms

Lia Movement is a bit slow. Understood the working style of SO’s and SR’s

Persons Met

1. Syed Zakhir who is the ASM for Vijayawada. Experienced senior and has effective management skill, had many advices, guidance for me who gave many inputs which made me easier to understand things in the market.

2. Sudhakar who is the Sales Officer for Krishna District and West Godavari has a very good product knowledge and a honest person as said by Mr. Syed Zakhir had maintained a healthy relation with the distributors and the retailers

3. K Venkateshwar who is the Sales Officer for Guntur has a very good knowledge of products and interacts well with everyone and is a good team handler.

4. Mallikarjun the Sales officer Sathish the Sales representative is well aware of competitor products and has a good relation with the distributors and retailers

5. Raghashiva Senior Sales Officer gives excellent guidance and visits the market regularly and communicates well with his subordinates.

6. Shiva Sales Officer in Pragathi Nagar promotes the schemes well and gets the orders by effective communication

Along with all these people I have interacted closely with the Sales representatives and Interims and have a good relation with them and found out they are hardworking and on time.

Lastly I conclude by thanking each and every one of them during my tour and our management for the opportunity given to me and specially thank

1. Mr. Chakravarthy Kalyan Sir – Senior Marketing Manager, for his suggestions.

2. Mr. Dheerendra Prasad Sir - Associate Marketing Manager, for his support and guidance throughout the trip.