Buoyed over improved revenue after a number of novel initiatives taken by Chairman Sanjay Seth since he took charge in July last year, Jharkhand State Khadi and Gramodyog Board is now eyeing at sizeable business from its online venture which is scheduled to be launched on April 1. Seth said on Friday that the organisation was trying to tap as much possibilities as was possible after promises of positive support from HDFC Bank’s Chairman Aditya Puri, who visited the Board’s office on Wednesday this week.
“We are in process of launching online shopping portal of our products from starting of April. A pilot project for the same will be launched in mid of this month. Processes of connecting all the stores with server in Ranchi head office of the Board and bar-coding products are being carried on,” said Seth on Friday, who is preparing for the launch of one store at Connaught Place, heart of National Capital New Delhi on Baisakhi this year.
He added that he was not in a position to predict the size or share of revenue from online platform. “But I am sure young customers are just waiting eagerly for us to go online We are eyeing at good business through online, as offline sales figure present a good picture of demands from possible online shoppers,” he said.
Puri has promised to help the Board by providing a small advertisement window on Bank’s website and offering additional discounts to the customers buying Khadi products offline or online through cards provided by Bank or through net banking. “Though many things in the process have to be finalized yet, we are sure it will add value to our business,” said Seth. He added that Puri also promised to promote Khadi among Bank’s employees.
Seth, who has repeatedly claimed of being sworn in at a time when the Board had been left with nothing more to lose in terms of revenue and set up under former Chairman who served for more than eight years, has appeared aggressive on several fronts to promote Khadi Board after he took charge in starting of July last year. The Board has added stores at Birsa Munda Airport, Vidhan Sabha, Radium Road and Ratu Road (all in Ranchi), Bishtupur (Jamshedpur), Hazaribagh and Jhumri Tilaiya in last six months.
“I had to start from scratch as the stores were selling, whatever they were selling on the name of Khadi, without any slips and sales records. Most of them were on the verge of closure. That is why I started with opening fresh stores and revamping old ones, many of which have turned in either break-even or in profitable position in terms of revenue,” said Seth.
The Board is also in process of revamping and repositioning few of stores within six months, which were not good earners due to customer-unfriendly locations including one in Deoghar. It was also planning to start around half a dozen new stores by March 2018, including Dhanbad, Ramgarh, Daltonganj and Garhwa with Khadi parks at last two locations within six months itself.