New script from Camlin

The 76-year-old brand is reinventing itself to stay relevant in a crowded marketplace.

For men and women in their twenties and thirties, the name Camlin still rings a firm bell. But somewhere along the way, Camlin, the 76-year-old brand founded by entrepreneur D P Dandekar, in a suburb of Mumbai, seemed to have lost the plot with the younger lot who are now spoilt for choice.

In the last few years, the Rs 10,000-crore stationary market has seen a steady influx of players from writing majors such as Cello, Reynolds, Linc and Luxor at one end to ITC with its Classmate brand of notebooks and allied products at the other. Traditional Camlin rivals, in the interim, have consolidated their position in the stationary marketplace. An example being Hindustan Pencils, which controls two-third of the pencil market with its Apsara and Natraj brands.

“All these players have deep pockets and are capable of waging a long battle for leadership,” says R Sridhar, chief executive officer of Bangalore-based brand consultancy Brand Comm.

Camlin then, say experts, has an uphill task, to regain both lost ground as well as ensure it is visible everywhere. But the company says it is game, scripting a comeback story.

Says Dilip Dandekar, Camlin chairman & managing director, “Having occupied the stationary market for so long, I don’t think we want to lose our edge in the marketplace. We continue to dominate the art and hobby segment of the market, we have no intention of vacating that position. But yes, we realise there is need to scale up and occupy new areas such as the market for mechanical pens, high polymer lead, markers etc,” he says.

But is that space large enough to make a critical difference? Analysts say no for now. Of the Rs 10,000-crore stationary market, the notebook segment alone is Rs 4,000 crore. This then is followed by writing instruments at about Rs 3,000 crore. The balance is distributed between segments such as art & hobby, scholastic products etc. “The space for mechanical pencils, high polymer lead etc is small at the moment,” says Chand Das, chief executive of ITC’s education and stationary business.

But Camlin’s Dandekar is clear this is the space to be in to avoid being branded as a me-too player.

His company, he says, is making investments in segments of the future even as it retains its stronghold in the school space. “In the last three years, we have made a capital investment of Rs 40 crore in our bid to increase production and focus on categories where we see potential for growth,” he says.

At the same time, the company is looking to double retail penetration to 300,000 outlets in the next two years. The target, says Dandekar, is to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in the next five years from Rs 330 crore at the moment. “This is achievable only if we are able to reach more people,” he says.

The stationary market interestingly is a fragmented one with no single player dominating every end of it. Does that then give room for players such as Camlin, who are seeking scale, to straddle the market? “That is not easy to do,” says Sridhar of Brand Comm. “There is a danger of losing focus because each segment has its own set of requirements and complexities.”

But players nonetheless are taking steps in that direction extending their range of products to cover at least complementary categories for now. Cello and Reynolds, for instance, have recently forayed into pencils and notebooks in addition to their mainstay of pens. Classmate from ITC has moved from its core notebook segment into areas such as geometry boxes, pens, pencils etc. According to Das, there will be more extensions in the future. So Camlin then will have to move fast if it has to play catch-up at all.