TTK Healthcare looking to exit map publishing business

Company said the performance of publications business, which is mainly maps, during the fiscal year 2012-13 was satisfactory against the advent of digital technology

TTK Healthcare Ltd is looking at gradually running down and exiting from its map publishing business. The company, along with the Jodhpur-based Indian Map Service (IMS), holds 60-70 per cent of the organised printed map market in India.

However, according to experts from the industry, the contribution of the business segment in its overall revenue has comparatively been small.

The company, in its annual report, said the performance of publications business, which is mainly maps, during the fiscal year 2012-13 was satisfactory against the advent of digital technology. Unable to maintain a threshold turnover, it saw the venture commercially unviable, said the report.

K Shankaran, director, TTK Healthcare Ltd, said, "We are not going to sell the business. We will be slowing down and if anybody is interested to license out the product, we would look at it."

Supplies to schools, which is a major share of the business for the industry, has also come down as many are giving more importance to science projects rather than humanities.

"Other considerations like five to six players operating in the Rs 6-crore organised map market and the unorganised market worth Rs 15-20 crore have made the company to opt out of the business," said an expert on condition of anonymity.

The existing map publishers in the country have diversified into publishing of other materials like children's book and educational materials. The price of paper, which is almost 80 per cent of the production cost of maps, has gone up drastically, affecting the business.

Publishers are also cautious on printing more number of copies of map including Andhra Pradesh on it, as talks about bifurcation of the state are going on. Similarly, if a set of villages is changed as taluks, the map with old information could not be sold.

However, there is still an opportunity in the online segment, particularly in the geographic information system. TTK Healthcare also has a presence in this segment.

During 2012-13, it produced 3,07,939 maps and atlases valued at Rs 1.36 crore revenues.