Business Standard

New Year gifts get chic

Image

K Rajani Kanth Hyderabad
RETAIL: No more diaries and pen sets for gifts this new season, the corporates have iPods, mobile handsets and designer mugs for you.
 
Tired of receiving routine diaries and organisers as New Year gifts? Expect something different this season. Corporate gifting is seeing a major culture shift with top-of-the-line companies looking for something unique to give away.
 
Says Phani Raj, managing director, eYantra Industries (a Hyderabad-based corporate gifts company), "Corporates are now looking for something different to gift. Gadgets like iPods and mobile handsets and garments like T-shirts and jackets are among the popular give-aways for this New Year, and big-ticket companies have placed orders for specialities in this range. We have received orders for around 130 iPods, 55 Nokia mobiles and thousands of T-shirts and jackets for the New Year."
 
Besides gadgets and mobile phones, companies are opting for a broad array of new gifts including car travel mugs, Hot Mugs (designer sippers), reed diffusers, miniature golf sets, Foce watches and a wide variety of folders and backpacks.
 
Another player in the corporate gifts segment, Rajeev, managing director, Apparel Design and Distribution Unlimited (ADDU), says only a handful of companies are now going in for ordinary New Year gifts like pen sets and tabletops.
 
"In keeping with the new lifestyles, the companies are placing orders for decorative and fragrance products. We have received bulk orders for aroma therapy candles and Feng Shui articles, and ethnic gifts such as kalamkari paintings from corporate houses like Dr Reddy's and Infosys," he says.
 
The corporate gifting market in India, says Phani Raj, is currently pegged at about Rs 4,500 crore and is growing at a healthy rate of 30 to 35 per cent.
 
"Of the total corporate gifting market in India, Andhra Pradesh contributes between Rs 150 crore and Rs 200 crore (around Rs 75 crore, in case of organised sector), while Chennai and Bangalore account for Rs 400 crore and Rs 250-300 crore respectively."
 
According to him, Diwali takes the cake, while the cream (that is New Year), would be around Rs 450 crore. "Corporates in Hyderabad are spending anywhere between Rs 10 crore and Rs 12 crore on gifts for this New Year. Of this, big spenders are from the IT and pharmaceutical industry," he says.
 
For this New Year, five-year-old eYantra has received orders for 750 jackets from Dr Reddy's Laboratories, 200 brushed steel coffee sets from Acenture, a bulk order for watches from Microsoft, 550 employee uniforms from Infosys, 1,000 denim shirts from Oracle, 5,000 T-shirts, caps and bags from the Andhra Pradesh Film Producers Council, among others.
 
The company has around 1,000 clients on its list, and offers over 5,000 products. At present, it enjoys a 25 per cent share in the organised corporate gifts sector.
 
This Rs 17-crore company currently has a processing unit at Ashok Vihar in Delhi and a T-shirts manufacturing unit at Kukatpally in Hyderabad.
 
It is setting up a garments manufacturing facility at the Apparel Park in Gundlapochampalli on the city outskirts at an investment of about Rs 2.5 crore, which is expected to be operational by July 2007. And this is just a start.

 

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Dec 29 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

Explore News