ITC Brand Story How It Succeed? The Company Was Started With Cigarettes, Today Its Products Are Found In Every Household

ITC, the largest tobacco products company, has entered the consumer product market in just ten years, an interesting story in India’s consumer market. The company entered the FMCG segment in 2003 and in a short span of ten years, the company has reached a revenue level of Rs 10,000 crore.
Since ITC (Imperial Tobacco Company) was founded in 1910, cigarettes were the main product for the company but now ITC’s consumer and food products business has grown at a rate of 16 per cent despite the slowdown in the consumer products industry.

ITC was established almost 100 years ago. Today the company’s products have become an important part of the lives of crores of people. ITC has managed to change its image of the cigarette maker.

The foundation of such a foundation was Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, ITC’s journey started in 1910 under this name. The company used to have an office in Radha Bazar Lane, Kolkata. As a backward integration of the cigarette business in the year 1925, the company started Packaging & Printing, which is today the best packaging house in India. Plot was taken at 37, Chowringhee (now Jawaharlal Nehru Road) in Kolkata for Rs 3,10,000 in the company’s 16th anniversary i.e. 24 August 1926. The company’s headquarters in this plot is Virginia House. And change started Ajit Narayan Haqsar became the first Indian chairman of ITC in 1969. In 1970 the Imperial Tobacco Company of India was renamed as India Tobacco Company Limited. Company name ITC in 1974 Has been limited. Perhaps the name was changed to Ajit Narayan and the company board was looking to give a new identity to the ITC known as Tobacco Company. His plan also surfaced to the world in the year 1975, when ITC entered the hotel business by buying hotels in Chennai. The company’s motive behind venturing into the hotel business was to make big bucks from foreign exchange, set up tourism infrastructures and generate large number of jobs. In 1990, the company decided to invest heavily in this segment and ITC Maratha, Launched luxury hotels like ITC Grand Central, ITC Sonar and ITC Gradania. To date, ITC Hotels has four brands – Luxury Collection, Welcome Hotels, Fortune Hotels and Welcome Heritage, which has more than 100 properties in India. Entry in paperboards business ITC in 1979 Started a company named ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited. The company merged with ITC on 13 March 2002 and became the Bhadrachalam Paperboards Division. Then in November 2002, this division was merged into the Triveni Tissues Division and the Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division was born. In 2004, ITC purchased the paperboard manufacturing plant of Built Industrial Packaging Company Limited. Today, ITC is named in paperboards technology in the world. The business has been growing at a rate of 16 per cent for the last 5 years. Credit goes to Ajit Narayan for launching ITC in the hotel and paperboards business. He retired in 1983. Then the Agri-Division started, after Ajit Narayan retired, the company was commanded by Jagdish Narayan Sapru. Sapru strengthens ITC in Agri Business. In the year 1990, ITC started the Agri Business Division for the export of Agri-Commodity. This division of ITC is today one of the largest exporters in India. Under this division, the company started the e-Choupal program for soy farmers in Madhya Pradesh during the year 2000. To date, more than 40 lakh farmers from 10 states are connected to it. Big Changes It was only in 1968 that a young professional joined ITC. Four years later in 1972, he came into the eyes of the then chairman Ajit Narayan and was made an MBO (Management by Objectives) Advisor. At just 37 years of age, he joined the company’s board of directors and in 1996 became the chief executive and chairman of ITC. The name of that person was Yogesh Chandra Deveshwar. Deveshwar has a big hand in making ITC the country’s largest diversified company. ITC, led by rising footsteps Deveshwar, started lifestyle retailing in 2000 with Wills Sport. This year, the company ventured into information technology. Launched branded packaged foods in 2001. Launched education and stationery products in the year 2002. Entered personal care in 2005. Today’s talk => In 2000 ITC Infotech India stepped into the IT industry. => In 2002, launched a premium range of notebooks under the Papercraft brand. => Men’s wear brand John Players launched. => Mint-O, Candyman and Blessing Dough Wade. => In 2003, launched the notebook range for students named Classmate. => Introducing branded Sunfeast, entering the biscuit segment. => In 2005 Fiama-de-Willis entered personal care with brands such as Vivel. => Entered into branded snacks with bingo in 2007. => In 2010 launched the instant noodles brand Yappi. => Entry with Engage in 2013 also in deodorant segment. => Ashirwad Package Dough and Sunfeast Biscuits have done business of Rs 2500 crore in 2013-14, in the last financial year the total turnover of these two brands was Rs 2000 crore. => ITC’s classmate notebook and stationery business has increased to Rs 1200 crore in 2013-14, which in 2012-13