Victorinox Creates A New Retail Channel  ( October '20,2003, FE)

Victorinox India is developing a new shop-in-shop retail network called ‘M.O.T.C.’ or Member of the Trading Corps for its range of Swiss army knives. The company is looking at a chain of 200-250 stores by March 2004 — beginning with the opening of 11 MOTCs in Delhi recently.

The new initiative involves installing a 1.6 feet x 1.6 feet display-cum- dispenser which can stock 64 different kind of Victorinox merchandising material at any existing retail shop.

Says Sasanna Enterprises Ltd managing director Anish Goyal (which manages and markets the Victorinox brand in India): ‘‘A network of 100 MOTCs would entail an investment of around Rs 70 lakh a year for our dealers. It is adequate for our dealers to rotate three times this investment to get a return of around Rs 2.1 crore.’’

‘‘In a first-ever initiative of its kind, we are now talking to a couple of banks (Standard Chartered and ABN Amro) to formulate a financial package involving EMI option for our retailers so that the initial investment doesn’t become a deterring factor for retailers,’’ Mr Goyal said

Victorinox India believes that the new initiative would result in deeper penetration of its products to even kirana outlets.

Victorinox is currently represented by two exclusive stores with one each in New Delhi and Bangalore; and over 300 multi-brand outlets. The company hopes to have a distribution network of 10 exclusive stores and over 2,000 multi-brand outlets in the next four years.

Under the MOTC plan, Victorinox is aiming at a network of around 100 stores in Delhi, 30 in Bangalore by the year-end, and another 100 stores in Mumbai by March ’04.

Mr Goyal ruled out plans for manufacturing of Swiss knives in India. He, however, indicated that the company could consider the local manufacturing of kitchen-knives once the brand is well-established in the market.

Kitchen-knives account for around 40 per cent of Victorinox’ overall global sales.

Victorinox — which originated as a Soldier’s Knife in 1891 — is increasingly associating the brand in India with symbols and traditions of India’s defence establishment. Victorinox lends itself to events like the one dedicated to the memory of youngest Param Vir Chakra (posthumously after the 1971 War) Arun Khetarpal. It has just launched the Param Vir collector’s kit, which includes a hard-bound copy of Param Vir by Maj Gen Ian Cardozo.

After the shifting of the Victorinox creative account to iB&W from O&M in India, the brand has a new tagline ‘Walk In As A Civilian, Walk Out As A Soldier’ — the earlier brand platform was ‘Everyone Needs It’.

Mr Goyal said the company was approaching dominant gift dealers and is also beefing up its institutional sales focus—it has already tied up with Maruti Udyog Ltd to be a Maruti genuine accessory to be sold through its dealer- ships.