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Deeptha Rajkumar

After Russia, Limtex is looking to launch the brand in other CIS nations such as Ukraine, Kiev and also West Asia.

Wellington (Nilgiris) , July 22

LIMTEX (India) Ltd, a Kolkata-based merchant tea export house which had earlier acquired the rights to `Nargis' brand of tea, has planned a September re-launch of the product in the Russian market, Mr Gopal Poddar, CMD of Limtex, told Business Line over telephone on Tuesday. `Nargis' tea however will be launched under a new logo and design in Russia and other export markets. "We have engaged the services of a reputed Russian design house, "Vostichini'' in Moscow at a fee of $10,000, to redesign the logo and packaging. The design house will also take care of all publicity material, relating to marketing of the tea,'' Mr Poddar said.

``After Russia, we are looking to launch the brand in other CIS nations such as Ukraine, Kiev etc and also West Asia. We are planning to introduce the brand in India by December this year,'' he said.

While Mr Poddar refused to divulge details of the deal, he said the company had signed an MoU with `Servichai,' a leading Russian distributor to market and distribute the tea in that country.

Servichai, which has about 126 sub-distributors, has several international tea brands such as Lipton, Dilmah, Nestle, Tetley, Twinings as its clients.

Unlike the last time when it had been launched simultaneously in 10 different regions in Russia, Mr Poddar said the brand would be launched in Moscow and South Russia initially.

"One cannot put volumes in a market without marketing it first. Our strategy will be to introduce it in the Russian market in a phased manner. For this we intend to create awareness region by region,'' he explained.

The projections have been targeted as 1,000 tonnes in the first year, 2,000 tonnes in the second year and 2,500 tonnes in the third year. The tie-up will be utilised to market only value-added teas under the Nargis brand name.

``There will be no tea marketed in bulk. It will all be packaged tea. The brand this time is also being positioned as an umbrella brand for a variety of teas including Assam Orthodox whole-leaf, brokens and tea bags made out of Assam CTC and Darjeeling fannings,'' he said.

The Limtex CMD said while Russia was perceived largely as a market for orthodox tea, there was also a large consumer base for CTC (i.e., Assam and Darjeeling Fannings) tea bags as well,'' he said.

`Nargis' tea, an erstwhile brand from the stable of Project India Blend, a company set up by a consortium of tea companies — Tata Tea, the Goodricke Group, Williamson Magor and Warren Tea — had been created specially to cater to the Russian market. However, in the wake of economic turmoil in early 1999, the brand had been gathering dust.

As merchant exporters, Limtex India' has been exporting CTC tea to Iraq, Russia, West Asia, CIS, Japan, Germany, France and Kenya.

The company had last year shipped about 13 million kg of tea to all these countries. "By far our largest market has been Iraq and last year we had shipped almost 6,200 tonnes of tea to the region, '' he said. However, the war has changed all that.

Commenting on the current export scenario, Mr Poddar said the company which had made an export turnover of Rs 80 crore last year, has projected a turnover of Rs 58 crore for the 2003-04 fiscal.

In the domestic market, Limtek has its brand Seven Elephant, CTC tea marketed and distributed in the Eastern region. They are also the sole distributors of Goodricke Tea in the Eastern region.

The company has one bought-leaf factory in Kotagiri and two bought leaf factories in Siliguri.

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