Duncans Industries Ltd (DIL), the Rs 1,000 crore flagship company of the G P Goenka's tea, fertilisers and petrochemicals empire, will be setting up a chain of tea boutiques in select areas in the next four months.
The stores will be set up under the Duncans brand name and logo, though the logo design and other details may be reworked.
"After extensive research into tea purchase habits and sales patterns, we have identified 10 locations where outlets will come up in four months," said Gauri Prasad Goenka. The group has been collecting data from actual visits to markets and buyers feedback from popular tea selling shops in the unorganised sector.
More From This Section
The first of the boutiques will come up in a month and will feature the innovations gleaned from some of the best beverages retailing chains in the world, Goenka said.
"We are accessing the best from across the world and will also be drawing upon the services of a specialist in setting up coffee retail chains worldwide to ensure a quality experience", he said.
The boutiques will be firmly focused on tea because "that is the business we understand the best", said Goenka. Other retail items will be selected and placed only if the group is convinced it has the expertise to do so.
"I am convinced that retail will be a good experience for us, given the strong data-based approach that we have taken and the direct retail model we have adopted," said Goenka. The first shop was likely to come up in B B D Bag, the central business area in the city, where several popular tea retailers were already located.
Though Goenka refused to speak on details of the roll-out plan, he indicated that the chain would avoid markets with clear preference for other beverages, or where start-up costs would be unacceptably high. The target buyer was mostly in the urban or semi-urban segment, who would appreciate the different types of tea on sale and would also recognise the quality aspects of fresh blended tea rather than factory packs. Goenka, a past president of FICCI, has for long been a crusader for the cause of greater government support for marketing in semi-urban and rural areas.
The group owns some of the best gardens in the Dooars and Darjeeling areas, and produces upper end orthodox and CTC teas. It also has powerful brands like Double Diamond and Runglee Rungliot in the packed tea market. RPG Enterprises, run by G P Goenka's elder brother Rama Prasad Goenka, is already a major retailer in the food and music segments.