Velvette International bounces back

'Sachet King' Dr. C. K. Rajkumar, managing director of Chennai-based Velvette International Pharma Products, who pioneered the concept of economically priced sachets for shampoos, is now into micro-sachet segment. He now plans to enter the competition in the packet shampoo and cough syrup segments.

The innovator of Re1 sachet shampoo, Dr. Rajkumar will soon be introducing 50 paise 'Velvette' shampoo packets. Already, the company has launched 'Velman' cream shampoo for men in 75 paise packets. "With the recent restoration of excise concession to small-scale units, we will now be able to compete with market giants like Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL)," says Dr. Rajkumar.

But this time, Dr. Rajkumar, who also introduced memory enhancing capsules 'Memory Plus', is unlikely to have a free run in the market as HLL is well entrenched in the rural markets.

Velvette International was enjoying a 18 per cent share in the Tamil Nadu shampoo market in 1994 when the central government withdrew the excise concession available for small-scale units. This gave FMCG majors like HLL a golden chance to enter the segment while smaller players like Velvette International languished.

According to Dr. Rajkumar, the group company, Nivaran Herbal Pvt. Ltd., manufactures 10,000 litres of shampoo per day as against a total capacity of 50,000 litres per day (lpd). "We are planning an innovative marketing strategy, which includes appointing nearly 1,200 distributors", he reiterates.

Velvette International is the first in India to also introduce the 8-ml 'Nivaran 90' herbal cough syrup in sachets priced at Re1. In order to further expand the market, the company has recently launched a smaller 4-ml packet for 50 paise.

"The mini sachets", according to Dr. Rajkumar, "are targeted at the average consumer and at the poorer sections of the society. More that 40 per cent of the Rs2,000 crore cough syrup market is flooded with unbranded products. This segment is our target."

However, Dr. Rajkumar doesn't see 'Samahan', a Sri Lankan import powder sold in small packets, as a threat because of its comparatively high price. "Samahan is priced at Rs. 3 per packet while Nivaran 90 is available for Re1 and 50 paise", he said.

Incidentally, Velvette International has a 40:60 joint venture with the Maharaja Group of Sri Lanka to a manufacture cough syrup there. The Chennai company has invested around Rs20 lakh in the Sri Lankan venture. According to Dr Rajkumar, Velvette International is also planning a joint venture in Malaysia.

While sachet shampoos took the southern market by storm, not many would have forgotten Dr. Rajkumar's other interesting product – 'Memory Plus' capsules.

Successfully overcoming fresh controversies relating to the conduct of clinical trials for Memory Plus capsules, Velvette International will soon relaunch the product in the Indian market.

Sometime ago, the company was asked to stop domestic marketing by the central government for want of data on clinical trials. "It was a motivated order issued in the wake of a complaint by a competitor. The capsule formula is owned by the central government's research lab, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow. We lost around Rs8 crore because of the ban", he says.

On the exports front, the company is expected to finalise a major French deal. The other countries to which Memory Plus is to be exported are Malaysia and Australia.

But what Dr. Rajkumar expects to propel him to greater heights is Nambi 2000, a plant growth mixture containing among others sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient of popular pill Viagra.

Experiments conducted on Nambi 2000 at the department of botany in Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, have shown encouraging results in respect of plant growth, yield and resistance to disease. So now it's time for a herbal Viagra !