Kolkata, Nov 23: India's second largest cigarette manufacturer, Godfrey Phillips India Limited (GPIL), would continue its focus on cigarette and tobacco business and is working out strategies to increase presence in eastern and southern India to increase its present market share of 12 per cent. "Our basic focus is cigarette and tobacco and would continue to be so in future as well. We are planning increased presence in eastern and southern Indian states and developing brands both for domestic and export market," said Sundeep Kumar, senior vice-president of GPIL.
He said the company had immense market to tap in cigarettes business in India as it was a distant second largest player after ITC Limited with a market share of 12 per cent and it was present in only 40 per cent of the country's geographical area.
"Unlike our competitor, we don't plan to divert our attention to other areas like FMCG. They are the country's leading player commanding huge market share and it might be necessary for them to expand to other areas for growth, but for us large untapped market is still existing," Kumar said.
He said the company had last year launched 'Tipper' brand of innovative cigarette developed at its own R&D and was doing fairly well. "It is a plain cigarette with dense end so that tobacco does not get into smoker's mouth."
"We are also test-marketing our new premium brand 'Jaisalmer' in Delhi and the initial response had been very encouraging," he said.
Bureau Report