KVIC and fashionable  ( August '9,2001, HBL)

Designer streaks in the age of lycra is not what the revival of khadi is all about. It is also about well-packaged soaps and shampoos, pickles and spices, honey and snack foods, and more.

As a confident Mahesh Prasad, Chairman, Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), declares, ``In the next three years, we are heading towards becoming the largest FMCG player in the industry. There may come a time when we will need to tell consumers that `we also sell khadi'.''

Cynics may call this yet another attempt by KVIC, perceived to be a fuddy-duddy, to glamourise its offerings, but the numbers involved in the makeover exercise are enough for anyone to sit up and take notice.

A budget of Rs 35 crore has been allocated for the renovation and modernisation of KVIC's sales outlets in metros and other cities, sales of KVIC's products are projected to touch Rs 10,500 crore in 2001-02, production is expected to touch Rs 8,600 crore in 2001-02 in place of the Rs 7,211.57 crore the previous year, direct exports in 1999-2000 touched Rs 29.65 crore, and Khadi and Village Industries' exclusive outlets (Khadi Bhandars in other words) currently number 7,733 - a figure that's head and shoulders above most mainline FMCG players.




The icing on the cake is a package of Rs 1,215.85 crore, which the Ministry of Small Scale Industries (SSI) & Agro and Rural Industries (ARI) announced just three months ago, for accelerated progress among the khadi and village industries sector.

According to KVIC officials, the Rs 35-crore retail outlay will also include either setting up or sprucing up display-cum-sales outlets at airports in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Varanasi and Goa.

Most significant among KVIC's immediate plans is the setting up of a professionally-managed marketing company, expected to be up and running by October this year. Assets of KVIC's Directorate of Marketing are likely to be transferred to the new company, and the latter is also expected to receive some financial assistance from the Government. Discussions for setting up the marketing company are in the final stages, and in all probability it will be headquartered in Mumbai. Though details are still being worked out, what is known currently is that the company's professional team will involve top KVIC officials and professionals from non-Governmental organisations.




The objective is clear: to capture the local market and further exports.

KVIC will henceforth segregate the khadi products into two distinct brands: Sarvodaya, aimed at the mass market, and Khadi, for the premium domestic market and exports. The former will comprise toilet soap, honey, pickle, spices and agarbatti, while the Khadi brand will include essential oils, herbal oils and soaps, face scrubs, dry fruit and honey, besides, of course, designer garments.

Production of most of these products is either complete, or underway.

Other plans afoot, informs K. S. Rao, Director (Publicity), KVIC, include furthering association with the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). A design development cell in KVIC is also being planned, he adds. In fact, NID, Ahmedabad, has proposed to create a special cell for KVIC for design support.

While fashion designers including names such as Rohit Bal and Malini Ramani are on KVIC's panel, the latter is trying to get the institutional involvement of the NIFT now.

Not to be left behind as far as the marketing mix of conventional corporates is concerned, KVIC has also hired three ad agencies to match rivals product for product. ``We are very much in the advertising and promotions game,'' reiterates Prasad.

KVIC has hired three ad agencies to push its products on the glamour platform - Appeal for the Khadi brand, Market Missionaries for the Sarvodaya brand and Pressman for corporate advertising and promotion schemes.

The style and tone of the advertising will obviously be tailored to match specific target audiences.

Elaborates Sidharth Vaish, Chief Executive, Appeal Advertising & Marketing Consultants, ``The advertising across all products will be in three tiers. In the first stage, we will talk about the pedigree of the product to address issues like, say, khadi being eco-friendly. The second stage will involve advertising that will convey the right perception of khadi to consumers. Finally, the advertising will project khadi as a lifestyle product.''

Adds Prasad, ``In an age when eco-friendly and ethnic chic products are in fashion, we have a huge advantage,'' stresses Rao.

According to Vaish, though the creatives are almost ready, the advertising will break once the retail outlets have been given the promised makeover.

Meanwhile, a market facilitation centre is being planned under the aegis of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project to serve as a nucleus for e-commerce and information sharing.

The project will involve training sales staff about retailing skills and consumer orientation at the shop floor, accounting and inventory management, besides exposure of selling institutions to best marketing practices.

The UNDP is providing financial support of about Rs 12 crore to strengthen artisan clusters of pottery, handmade paper and bee-keeping, besides beefing up the resource centres and capacity building for marketing initiatives.


Click here for Table


The functions of KVIC - a statutory body created by an Act of Parliament and established in 1957 - already include planning, promotion, organisation and implementation of programmes for the development of khadi and other village industries in rural areas.

KVIC covers 2.68 lakh villages, has 5,599 registered institutes, 30,138 cooperative societies and 30 State boards.

Rao adds that KVIC is seeking collaboration with scientific and technical training institutions for research and developmental work. Quality control measures have already been planned with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. The latter has been working on a turnkey basis for the overall revamp of the central research facility at Wardha.

The money is obviously in place. Can khadi make it to the big league? The acid test begins now.