BILT eyes Rs 100 cr turnover

Targets 300 per cent jump in retail business, plans to build the BILT brand

Paper manufacturer Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT) is planning to expand its branded office product line by targeting a 300 per cent jump in its retail business.

"At present, the turnover from our retail business is Rs 25 crore. We want to increase the figure to Rs 100 crore in the next couple of years," Ballarpur Industries Ltd's Joint Managing Director Rajeev Vederah said.

The company will add new products in the non-paper category like computer peripherals, office supplies and stationery to strengthen its retail section. Vederah said it would source the new line of products from a third party and add the BILT branding to it.

"Building a BILT brand name is important to project ourselves from a pure commodity supplier to a trusted brand name in paper and office products," Vederah added.

The retail business of the company is currently carried out through its 110 exclusive wholesellers, 110 retail distributors and over 10,000 stationers.

The company also plans to increase its number of stationers from 10,000 to 25,000 and to make its presence felt in around 3,000 cities across the country in the next few years.

Currently the company has three products in the BILT branded category product range, which includes royal executive bond paper and matrix multi-purpose paper.

Meanwhile, BILT is also looking to enter the high volume segment of "cream wove", a special kind of paper used by the writing industry.

Out of a total paper market size of 2.5 million tonnes, "cream wove" alone accounts for 1.1 million tonnes, which amounts to Rs 2,600 crore annually.

"This is one segment where BILT's presence is relatively less. We are looking at outsourcing the product and selling it under our brand name," Vederah said.

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Retail expansion

• The company will add new products in the non-paper category like computer peripherals, office supplies and stationery to strengthen its retail section
• The company plans to source the new line of products from a third party and add the BILT branding to it
• The company's retail business is currently carried out through its 110 exclusive wholesellers, 110 retail distributers and over 10,000 stationers