Investing in digitisation in big way: Amrutanjan

Amrutanjan Health Care Ltd, manufacturers of popular pain balm, is investing in digitisation in a big way, setting a target of garnering 1.3 per cent of national sales through e-commerce, a top official has said.

The company was eyeing to expand its distribution network in Western and Northern zones to strengthen its footprint, its Chairman and Managing Director Sambu Prasad said. It was also working on launching a mobile application on its popular Comfy brand aimed at serving women to track menstrual and feminine health and can also order Comfy range of sanitary napkins and related products.

"Keeping in line with the strategies mentioned in the past, we continue to focus on building distribution for our brands with the M5K plan that targets a vision of appointing 5,000 distributors and sub-distributors", he said addressing shareholders in a virtual meeting recently.

Last year, the company appointed 974 distributors and sub-distributors improving direct coverage from 3,953 to 4,510 towns. "..this would drive our vision to grow distribution of our range of products to regions in western and northern zones where our business is relatively weak," Prasad said.

On foraying into digital space, he said the company was investing in digitisation in a big way by building on the sales force automation project that was rolled out a couple of years ago by building a dashboard that seamlessly integrates data flow from various sources.

"Part of the digitisation is also to offer our products for sale on our corporate website. Our products are available currently online in Amazon, Pharmeasy, Netmeds, Apollo," he said.

Prasad said the company recorded Rs 1.6 crore e-commerce sales in the last year. "We wish to target 1.3 per cent of national sales from e-commerce in FY21", he said, adding current sales from online contributes about 0.5 per cent. Amrutanjan Health care is focused on growing pain, health beverages and women's hygiene portfolio, Prasad said.

"When one considers the ageing population, prevalence of stress related aches and pains, increasing lifestyle of exercise, fitness and sports activities, the secular growth of certain over the counter categories can continue well into the future," he said.

On the impact of Covid-19, he said the pandemic did not affect the company's operations till March and later disrupted the market, stopped movement of goods to both distributors and retailers and end consumers.

"The hit to sales in March was to the tune of Rs 33 crore," he said. The CMD said potential sales without the impact of Covid-19 would be Rs 321.92 crore with a revenue growth of 14.44 per cent. The company's revenue from Comfy brand was Rs 40 crore as compared to Rs 35 crore in the previous year, he said. Adding sales from the "Roll On" was Rs 26 crore as against Rs 21 crore recorded in the previous year.

"We are confident of weathering the storm as we have built a business on strong fundamentals with real consumer demand," Prasad said.