Camlin inks pact with Japanese firm

Camlin, the country’s leading producer of stationery items, has singed an MoU with Zebra Company Ltd of Japan for marketing the latter’s writing instruments in India.

Initially, Camlin will be selling Zebra’s products in India which could be later expanded to SAARC countries. Both companies have agreed to set up a manufacturing unit in India once Zebra’s products are marketed upto expectations.

“Initially the products would be imported from Zebra Factories and Camlin would be marketing and distributing Zebra products through its extensive distribution network in India. Subsequently both the companies could jointly explore setting up manufacturing facilities in India.

This tie–up will initially focus on the Indian market, but later on will also look at exporting opportunities to SAARC and other countries arising out of sourcing benefits,” said Shriram Dandekar, Executive Director, Camlin Ltd.

Camlin Ltd is one of India’s leading stationery companies for over 79 years with strong brand equity, with a wide product range and large distribution network making its brands “Camlin” and “Camel” a household name in school and education stationery products.

Zebra Company Ltd, with $300 mn annual sales company was established in Japan in 1897 and is today one of the leading writing instruments company in Japan. Zebra manufactures and sells ball point pens, gel pens, roller ball pens, mechanical pencils, markers, highlighters and other similar writing instruments.

Zebra also sells and exports its products to the US, South America, Southeast Asia, Europe, China and Middle East. Zebra products have been known for good quality and continuously innovative to bring new writing instruments products to the market.

The Indian writing instrument market is close to $1 billion in size and estimated to be growing at an annual rate of 8–10 per cent. The growth is being felt both in urban and rural India.

While at the lower end of the market there is still a huge opportunity with increasing education and literacy, people at the upper end of the market are ready to upgrade.

The pen market that forms the bulk of the writing instruments market is extremely competitive with many players. In such a dynamic and growing market both the companies want to have an attractive share of the pie. Camlin being a well known Indian stationery company would like to spread its presence into pens category whereas Zebra would be keen to make their presence stronger in the large and growing Indian market.