Goodricke Group eyes on-line packet tea sales in big way

Kolkata, April 20 (IANS) In a major move to sell packet tea online, especially in overseas markets, tea major Goodricke Group has initiated measures to upgrade its website for international transactions, a top company executive said Saturday.

The city-based firm has already appointed an agency for upgrading the website for the on-line selling of tea to the domestic as well as international markets.

"A lot of work is already done. I think in the next six months the website will be upgraded for international e-selling. The current software is only good for transactions within India. But this is having problems on overseas transactions," managing director A.N.Singh told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the company.

Singh said the entire website would be upgraded in order to create a gateway for international as well as Indian payments.

The tea major, which launched its on-line selling initiative three months ago, is hopeful of selling a huge quantity of the brew through this platform during a short period of time.

Goodricke Group chairman P.J. Field said the firm wanted to cover all types of tea through online sales.

"In Europe, e-selling is very active and some of the German companies are very active in online marketing. Like all the things the company does, we want to do this (e-selling) very slowly and cautiously, making sure that it works properly," Field said.

The firm, a group company of Britain-based Camellia PLC, produced 20.73 million kgs of tea in 2012 against 20.66 million kgs in the previous year.

The company, which entered into the packet teasegment in a big way, said this year the segment could contribute up to 40 percent of its total sales, up from about 33 percent currently.

The tea major's turnover stood at Rs.5,383 million during 2011-12, registering more than 17 percent growth over the previous year.

Apart from, packet tea segment and exports, the company is also emphasising on instant tea.

Encouraged by the successes of its tea lounges in Bhopal and Gurgaon, the firm is planning to roll out more such lounges in every year.

"Our target is to open one lounge in a metro in each year," Singh said, adding the next lounge would come up in Delhi.