Evergreen entrepreneur C. K. Ranganathan has gone down in golden letters in way too many management books because of the manner in which he beat heavyweight multinats to become India’s sachet king. Now he is looking to shed CavinKare’s regional positioning to reach out to a pan-Indian urban audience.
The year 1983 was a watershed of sorts for the underdog. On one hand there was Captain Kapil Dev who took the sensational catch to dismiss the dangerous Viv Richards, taking underdog India closer towards its historic World Cup win at Lord’s; and on the other, there was Nirma, a local FMCG player that had only just begun to make deft inroads into the detergent powder market, which till then was considered the sole bastion of the all-powerful multinational Hindustan Levers and their popular detergent Surf. The brainchild of Karsanbhai Patel, Nirma completely revolutionised the detergent powder segment with its ingenious pricing and swept the lower end of the market. The battle between Levers and Nirma continued for two decades, but around the turn of the millennium, eventually the deep-pocketed MNC won. As per the Centre for Industrial and Economic Research (CIER), by Y2K Levers had overtaken Nirma in brand awareness in rural households with 88% penetration as compared to Nirma’s 56% penetration. Nirma had clearly lost out to its muscled multinat rival.
Not every domestic FMCG player suffered the same fate as Nirma though. Around the same time as Nirma was taking the winds out of Surf’s sail, another domestic FMCG company was upping its ante. By 1985, through a reverse merger with Vidogum Limited, Dabur (once a small time pharma company) became a public limited company. Over the years, Dabur successfully entered the healthcare, personal care and foods businesses taking some of the sheen off its MNC counterparts. Unlike Nirma, the Burmans of Dabur turned over the company to professionals in 1998 and reached the magical turnover of Rs.1,000 crore by the turn of the century, leaving behind its small beginnings forever. In segments like shampoo and juices today, the Rs.112 billion Dabur Group continues to give sleepless nights to multinats like HUL and PepsiCo respectively.
This brings us to India’s third home-grown FMCG company, CavinKare. Interestingly, CavinKare too has an inextricable association with events that took place in 1983. At a time when HUL was busy fighting Nirma in the detergent market, little did the MNC know that in a lesser known town (Cuddalore) in Tamil Nadu, a young entrepreneur had taken it upon himself to transform the nation’s shampoo market. With Rs.15,000 in hand, C. K. Ranganathan, now famously called India’s sachet king, launched his Chik shampoo sachets in 1983. Ranganathan did not have deep pockets and so distributors were reluctant to stock Chik Shampoo. So he thought ingeniously, approached bicycle hirers and inspired them to become entrepreneurs. Initially, Ranganathan collected a demand draft of only Rs.2,000 from these bicycle guys in lieu of handing over bags full of Chik shampoo sachets to sell in rural Tamil Nadu. But in no time the demand draft’s grew to Rs.5,000 and then Rs.10,000. By 1992, Chik Shampoo had become the market leader in South India’s shampoo market. By the time FMCG multinats got wind of the sachet revolution in the hinterland’s, Ranganathan had already swept the market.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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The year 1983 was a watershed of sorts for the underdog. On one hand there was Captain Kapil Dev who took the sensational catch to dismiss the dangerous Viv Richards, taking underdog India closer towards its historic World Cup win at Lord’s; and on the other, there was Nirma, a local FMCG player that had only just begun to make deft inroads into the detergent powder market, which till then was considered the sole bastion of the all-powerful multinational Hindustan Levers and their popular detergent Surf. The brainchild of Karsanbhai Patel, Nirma completely revolutionised the detergent powder segment with its ingenious pricing and swept the lower end of the market. The battle between Levers and Nirma continued for two decades, but around the turn of the millennium, eventually the deep-pocketed MNC won. As per the Centre for Industrial and Economic Research (CIER), by Y2K Levers had overtaken Nirma in brand awareness in rural households with 88% penetration as compared to Nirma’s 56% penetration. Nirma had clearly lost out to its muscled multinat rival.
Not every domestic FMCG player suffered the same fate as Nirma though. Around the same time as Nirma was taking the winds out of Surf’s sail, another domestic FMCG company was upping its ante. By 1985, through a reverse merger with Vidogum Limited, Dabur (once a small time pharma company) became a public limited company. Over the years, Dabur successfully entered the healthcare, personal care and foods businesses taking some of the sheen off its MNC counterparts. Unlike Nirma, the Burmans of Dabur turned over the company to professionals in 1998 and reached the magical turnover of Rs.1,000 crore by the turn of the century, leaving behind its small beginnings forever. In segments like shampoo and juices today, the Rs.112 billion Dabur Group continues to give sleepless nights to multinats like HUL and PepsiCo respectively.
This brings us to India’s third home-grown FMCG company, CavinKare. Interestingly, CavinKare too has an inextricable association with events that took place in 1983. At a time when HUL was busy fighting Nirma in the detergent market, little did the MNC know that in a lesser known town (Cuddalore) in Tamil Nadu, a young entrepreneur had taken it upon himself to transform the nation’s shampoo market. With Rs.15,000 in hand, C. K. Ranganathan, now famously called India’s sachet king, launched his Chik shampoo sachets in 1983. Ranganathan did not have deep pockets and so distributors were reluctant to stock Chik Shampoo. So he thought ingeniously, approached bicycle hirers and inspired them to become entrepreneurs. Initially, Ranganathan collected a demand draft of only Rs.2,000 from these bicycle guys in lieu of handing over bags full of Chik shampoo sachets to sell in rural Tamil Nadu. But in no time the demand draft’s grew to Rs.5,000 and then Rs.10,000. By 1992, Chik Shampoo had become the market leader in South India’s shampoo market. By the time FMCG multinats got wind of the sachet revolution in the hinterland’s, Ranganathan had already swept the market.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1 lakh copies sold in less than 10 days of Arindam Chaudhuri’s “Discover The Diamond In you”
IIPM fights meltdown, places 2300 students By Education Mail Bureau
Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better By Swati Sharma
Events at IIPM
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM Admission Detail
IIPM, GURGAON
