Our Bureau

Chennai , June 5

INSPIRED by its competitors, Madras Fertilizers Ltd (MFL) is going to market life insurance and non-life insurance products.

According to the Managing Director, Mr Sukumar N. Oommen, the company has entered into an agreement with ING Vysya to market its life insurance products and with Royal Sundaram for non-life insurance products.

The company started sales in June and hopes to add at least Rs 30 lakh revenue by acting as a corporate agent for the insurance products. MFL has a wide dealer network to sell its own fertilisers, which can be used to sell the insurance products. It had over 6,500 dealers and also came in direct contact with at least two lakh farmers. This opportunity could be utilised to market such products, he said.

MFL staff members have passed the requisite examinations; eight officers have been selected to oversee marketing in eight zones. They will market the insurance products in Tamil Nadu (Tiruchi, Salem, Madurai and Vellore), Andhra Pradesh (Cuddapah, Vijayawada and Hyderabad) and Karnataka (Bangalore). Both the insurance companies have done a survey and have initially selected these areas as part of a pilot effort and the marketing area is likely to be expanded.

The move by MFL was inspired by the presence of some of its competitors in insurance. For instance, Coromandel Fertilisers has Cholamandalam Insurance in the group and IFFCO has IFFCO-Tokio, he said.

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