Penning growth

Calcutta, July 18: Linc Pen & Plastics Limited is expecting a 15 to 20 per cent growth in turnover this fiscal over Rs 135 crore clocked last fiscal.

The writing instruments company is also looking at a rise in exports with Wal-Mart sourcing growing by 20 per cent over the last three years.

“We make a special range for Wal-Mart, which is not available in the country. Our export turnover of Rs 20 crore is set to increase by 20 per cent buoyed by the Wal-Mart sourcing. We are also targeting other export markets,” said Deepak Jalan, managing director of Linc.

The important export markets include the US, the UK and the Saarc countries, including Myanmar.

Linc has recently forayed into the semi-premium segment with pens titled Saffron priced at Rs 15.

The company has two wholly owned manufacturing units in Calcutta and Goa and a dedicated unit in Noida.

The overall capacity of 1.5 million pens per day would be increased to 1.8 million pens per day.

The organised domestic writing instruments market, led by pens, is valued at Rs 1,400 crore, while the unorganised market would be worth another Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore.

Linc has about 10 per cent market share and is one of the top three companies with Cello and Reynolds.

“This industry is facing the heat of an almost 10 per cent rise in input cost in the last three to four months. We have passed it on to the trade, but if this upward surge continues for the next three months, the cost would have to be passed on to the consumers and the prices would increase by around 10 per cent,” said Jalan.

The company has a distributing agreement with Mitsubishi Pencil Company of Japan for their Uniball brand (priced between Rs 20 and Rs 200) and the Lamy of Germany (priced between Rs 300 and Rs 3,000).