Crockery brand Yera is all set to get an overhaul after almost a decade of being identified with drinkware, the Alembic Group’s brand is geared up to strike the market with a designer portfolio. It is believed that the new products will establish its name in cooking and dining ware segments.
Regarding this, Nitin Bhave, Director, Shreno Ltd, an associate group company of Vadodara headquartered pharma firm said, the firm will not remain as a Martini glass maker and it will be a utilitarian glassware brand. The products will be made available via exclusive retail outlets as well, he added.
The firm is investing around Rs 15 crore to refurbish its furnace and it will be capable of churning out 80 tonnes of glassware everyday. He added that they are scaling down the capacity from 100 tonnes in order focus on efficiency. As of now, the brand has 40 percent market share in the Indian glassware market that is worth Rs 250 crore.
The portfolio of Year comprises of kitchenware including hot and cold processing and storage, giftware and dinnerware products, despite being dominated by drinkware as in the past.
Yera’s new portfolio line was developed as the firm analyzed the reason for slipping. The popular domestic glassware brand was pushed down by the cheap Chinese imports and foreign brands. Though the firm presumed with glassware imports, it could not sustain in the market as buyers started opting for expensive glassware as the overall purchasing power improved significantly.
Regarding this, Alembic’s Director, Rajkumar Baheti said that the brand that once had a legacy and recall value was directionless. Though Alembic went on with its glassware manufacturing at the Vadodara plant and consumers preferred their glassware with Year branding, the Chinese glassware were the intruders.
However, Yera started with brand rebuilding for the last two years and introduced one new design on every day of 2013. Now, they are sitting on a design portfolio of over 500 designs and the team has reworked on the quality of their products as well.
The firm considers the trend where Indians have got comfortable in using glassware in their everyday cooking and dining and preference of purchasing glassware online. It aims to make a great opportunity for it with this rising trend. They are also interested in servicing the tier II and tier III cities and towns as the glassware penetration is taking place even there with the Chinese goods being dominant. Alembic is in plans to roll out 30 new outlets in the next six months and exhibition cum sale model in smaller markets.
