Tata Steel eyes Rs 1300cr turnover from flats

Shaktee and Steelium brands to do the trick in the current fiscal.

Tata Steel is eyeing a turnover in excess of Rs 1,300 crore from its two flat product brands""Tata Shaktee and Tata Steelium""this financial year.

Anand Sen, chief (marketing & sales) flat products, said the success in the branding initiative was an outcome of the strategies chalked out by the company.

He explained, the performance of the brands could be attributed to the emphasis laid on servicing the brand, rather than marketing the product and selling it in the market.

The turnover of Tata Shaktee and Tata Steelium, last year, was a shade over Rs 1,200 crore, which implied that the company is set to clock a double-digit growth, this year.

As part of its awareness campaign, the company is charting out different ways to connect with the customer. One such initiative is the "haat mandi campaign". Estimates indicated that almost half of the target customers for the brands visited these 'haats'.

Sen said, there were 45,000 'haats' across the country and brand managers would visit such haats to create awareness about the brands.

With such initiatives, Tata Steel is hoping that the company will be able to garner a market share of 24 per cent for the GC sheets brand, Tata Shaktee and 21 per cent for the cold rolled Tata Steelium brand.

Trade sources said the Tata flat product brands enjoyed premium of around 3-5 per cent over other brands in the market. "The acceptability of the brands in the market is very high, especially in the case of Shaktee, Steelium being a relatively new brand."

In the case of Tata Shaktee, Tata Steel had adopted a quarterly pricing strategy such as recommended consumer price. This meant. in a certain territory, an end consumer, typically a rural farmer buying a few sheets, will get the same price at every shop.

The company had also made a foray in the international market with Tata Steelium. Sen said the company is selling Steelium in Nepal through distributors and already had a market share of 30-40 per cent. There are also plans to take the brand to Sri Lanka.

Sen explained from a tonnage-driven culture the company had moved to a value-driven culture. Market sources said in the near future, as part of Vision 2007, the company also planned to launch other internationally relevant brands.