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| Business Note – Parragon Publishing India 2006-2011 |
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| Parragon Publishing India has traced a steep growth curve over the last 5 years, from June 2006 when the Indian operations were first set up, to the present date, having established itself firmly as a trailblazer and a force to reckon with in the thriving publishing scenario in the subcontinent. |
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| The key highlights of this journey have been:- |
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| Product Range |
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- Having started off with a limited range of titles when we launched, with books from the parent company, today we have a wide range of books across 4 main categories: Adult, Cookery, Kids & Licensing. At any given time we maintain an active base of about 750 titles. Parragon India plays a vital role in selecting the titles it brings into the country by carefully sieving through the vast range on offer, choosing only those that make business sense and also keeping the regional sensitivities in mind as far as the subcontinent and the Middle-East markets are concerned.
- Our licensing range has grown tremendously. When we started publishing for Disney in India, the licensed publishing market was fragmented and multiple publishers were bringing out books across similar formats and characters. Today we look back and feel proud of the fact that we are now the leading licensee for Disney and have all major characters across multiple formats within our portfolio. We have also established relationships with Mattel and Cartoon Network and publish books under the Barbie and Ben 10 licences. We are in the process of finalizing talks with Discovery Channel for publishing books under their licence for the Indian subcontinent and Middle-East.
- In order to meet the huge demand for our books, we are now developing a local publishing programme, publishing books targeted at the Indian audience. From low cost children’s books starting at only Rs.39 to a stunning visual extravaganza such as the Spirit of the Tiger, our endeavour is to cater to all age groups and socio-economic strata.
- With about 30-40 new titles releasing every month we offer a great selection of new books. We also re print the evergreens to ensure steady availability of the bestsellers alongside the new collection. This effec tively means we bring in at least one new title every day, a commendable feat by publishing standards considering the huge costs involved in developing and printing visual books.
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| Sales & Distribution |
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- Parragon pioneered the concept of selling books in modern retail across the globe. Our entry into the Indian market was likewise based on this unique business model. Over the years we have proven to the Indian retail markets that books have now emerged as a prime category within modern retail (both organized and unorganized) and is on a fast track growth path. The retail industry has realized that books are a great product to be bought ‘impulsively’ and also serve as a novel gift idea. The key is the display and the price point, since purchase decision is on ‘impulse’. Parragon has been able to clearly understand the local consumer psyche and has arrived at the sweet price point range for the modern retail market. The successful price range is between INR 95-INR 195. Parragon books are now retailed across top retail outlets such as Big Bazaar, Lifestyle, Mom & Me etc. We sell to a wide variety of outlets such as supermarkets, groceries, toy shops, gift, convenience stores and novelty shops. Our books are sold even from saree shops and wine stores!
- With a solid foot in the conventional trade market, our books are available at all leading bookstores of the country such as Landmark, Odyssey, Reliance Time-Out, Crossword and Oxford. We service local book shops through our well networked distribution channel across the country where we have our national and regional distributors playing an active role.
- Having already established itself in modern retail and the conventional bookstore-driven trade markets, the next challenge Parragon India has embarked upon is to tap the Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets as we see a huge opportunity there with no quality publisher making an effort to reach out to the masses by offering them great content at affordable prices. It is a market with high aspirations and a thirst for knowledge. We are setting up Stockists who have a background of distributing stationery and toys across the country in order to tap smaller markets and ensure an unparalleled reach.
- Parragon retails its books through specially designed merchandizing units (display towers/gondolas) which allow the retailer to highlight the books through well-researched plannograms that help the consum er in product selection and also encourages impulse buys.
- Exports have been a great opportunity for us and we have seen a rapid growth in sales in the Middle-East markets as well as the other Indian subcontinent markets. Today Parragon India services Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Mynamar & Bangladesh as well as the Middle- East markets including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Israel. Even in the export markets we continue to drive our business across modern retail and the conventional trade channel.
- Having achieved a robust 30% sales year-on-year, we see the coming years offering us an opportunity to scale new heights and cement ourselves as leading visual publishers in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle-East markets.
- Clocking a whopping 200% increase in the number of units from what we had sold in our inception year to the sales in the last financial year, we have now set ourselves a sales growth target of 35%-40% YOY for the next 3 years.
- We feel we have created a huge market for visual books in India and have outsold even some of the fiction bestsellers. For eg: In India alone we have sold over a million copies each of all 6 titles of our bestselling children’s encyclopaedia series! All these books have been sold to individual retail buyers, a reflection of the huge potential and expansion which we have been able to create for our visual books.
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| Pricing |
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- Offering books with quality content and amazing visuals at unbelievable prices has been the most signifi cant USP that Parragon offers to consumers. Being about 30-35% cheaper with equal production quality if not better than comparable international publishers, Parragon books offer great value for money.
- Having tie-ups with the best printing facilities across the globe, Parragon is able to print in huge quantities and thus pass on the best pricing to consumers. With consumers becoming more value-driven, Parragon offers the best option to them.
- Though the publishing industry at large is under pressure because of rising raw material and production costs, Parragon has been able to provide consumers with the most competitively-priced books.
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| Ethics |
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- Parragon is committed to being a responsible trading partner with suppliers, ensuring that our books are produced as per international as well as locally recognized labour laws.
- For procurement of paper, Parragon ensures that it uses paper the pulp of which has been obtained from sustainable forests.
- We use child-friendly non-toxic inks and booksplus items that pass through stringent international tests.
- Parragon works with The Carbon Neutral Company to understand and identify steps required in reducing our carbon footprint.
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