The ubiquitous ?Hot Tea Shop? (HTS) owner, who operates just around the corner of your street, may soon get his/her life insured, if the plans of the Kolkata-based Duncans Tea Ltd, part of the Rs 2,000 crore Duncan Goenka Group, is anything to go by. Currently, the company intends to give insurance cover to HTS owners in Andhra Pradesh, provided they adhere to the sales norms that are to be laid down.
According to M C Appaiah, chief operating officer of the company, “The initiative is part of the company’s sales promotion scheme. We are talking to a slew of insurance companies to offer life insurance cover either on individual basis or on group basis. But have not zeroed in on anyone so far. The life insurance cover will be given absolutely free for the benefit of the HTS owners. It is an incentive, which we want to extend, provided they sell certain volume of Duncans Tea. The eligibility criteria will be consumption-driven. However, we have not laid down the criteria as yet. It can be even sale of 500 cups to 600 cups of Duncans Tea per day.”
Since it is a promotional scheme, it would be time-bound, he said adding finer details were yet to be chalked out. The company is in the process of tabulating data on the HTS operating in the state to facilitate this initiative.
Talking about the tea market, Krishnendu Ghosh, head-marketing of the company said that south India was one of the growing markets. Right now, south accounts for 25% of the packaged tea market. “It is a lucrative market. Our objective is to cater to the market through more innovative channels and a range of products”, he said.
The company already has a tie up with Leo Coffee to reach out to the customers in Chennai. Plans are on to extend the arrangement to Tiruchy in Tamil Nadu as well. “By 2010, the company targets to reach out to 5,00,000 households in south India as against 1,50,000 households right now”, he added.