Hindusthan National Glass eyes retail foray

Hindusthan National Glass and Industries (HNG), bulk supplier of glass containers to food and beverage companies, is planning to introduce light weight glass bottles under a brand for retail consumers.
"We are planning to come out with light weight glass bottles with a brand for retail consumers in the market during Diwali," HNG Vice-President Bharat Somany told PTI.
"Traditionally, we are supplying glass containers to food and beverages companies and this would be our first attempt to touch retail consumers directly," he said.
HNG Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Somany is directly involved in promoting glass bottles and has joined hands with Swachh Bharat Abhyian in pushing for its usage in offices and homes.

Somany said with increase in health awareness, prospects are bright for wider acceptance of these glass bottles for personal use instead of PET and other plastic bottles.
The company hopes to price the bottles at around Rs 25 each.

It is also planning to create awareness for use of glass bottles.
Somany, however, did not relate the retail foray as a strategy to counter slowdown which has hit the company's bottomline.
As on March 16, the networth of the company had eroded to Rs 123 crore, which is more than 50 per cent lower than last year's networth of Rs 313 crore.

It has also sold a wholly-owned subsidiary HNG Global GmbH for 23 million euros (about Rs 175 crore) in wake of the global slowdown.