In a low-involvement category without much brand loyalty — one where consumers tend to be ‘led’ by the nose, identifying the product through specific fragrances and not particular brands — the name ‘Cycle Brand Agarbatti’ stands out.
The product came from the stable of the ‘Mysore Products and General Trading Company (MP>C)’, which was founded by philanthropist and entrepreneur N Ranga Rao in the State of Mysore (now Mysuru), in 1948. The founder initially invested in units to manufacture soap nut powder (shikakai) and hair oil; he also procured agarbattis (joss, incense or prayer sticks) and resold them after packaging and branding them.
Very soon, he zeroed in on the light-weight agarbattis as the best product to manufacture and proceeded to learn all he could about the business from books, people in the perfumery business, and other sources. The brand name ‘Cycle’ was supposedly chosen for easy recognition and recall, as it was pronounced and understood the same way in all Indian languages. The brand is today known as ‘Cycle Pure Agarbattis’.
Novel ideas
A shrewd businessman, Ranga Rao came up with novel ideas to attract and retain customers. He had a knack for developing new and unique aromas (something the company is still famous for) and, during a period when the product was all about the packaging, he packed agarbattis in rolls of grease-proof paper printed with the brand name ‘Cycle’, saving on packaging and giving the consumer a cheaper product.
MP>C later became N Ranga Rao & Sons Pvt. Ltd. or NRRS, an incense stick manufacturer offering five distinct brands – the flagship brand Cycle Pure (the market leader in India, exported to over 60 countries), Lia, Flute, Rhythm and Woods agarbattis . From a small cottage enterprise, the company has now grown into a major force dominating the incense stick market in India.
Agarbatti-making is a recognised handicraft industry. The market, dictated by tradition and religion, is a fragmented one with several hundred organised and unorganised players. Their products were once available only in shops selling religious items; today, the industry has come of age and its products occupy shelf space in lifestyle and departmental stores. The humble agarbatti has moved out of the religious sphere into regions like aromatherapy, wellness, meditation and even home décor.
First to brand incense sticks
Ranga Rao is said to have been the first person to attempt to brand such a product. His company also has other firsts to its credit. It was the first incense stick manufacturer to adopt the FMCG channel for distribution. It was also the first to offer a 3-in-1 fragrance. The product range covers a variety of incense sticks and dhoop (incense cones) in different fragrances, each category described quite poetically, and pooja kits for important festivals. Also, as it is a product used in religious worship, no animal products are used and it is not tested on animals.
Joss stick manufacturing is said to take a toll on the health of the workers and pose environmental hazards but NRRS is a ‘green’ company right from the raw material stage to the end product. International Fragrance Association (IFRA) certified natural ingredients and aroma materials that are not harmful to the environment/ health are used in manufacturing the agarbattis . Both the products and the packaging are eco-friendly in that no chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are released during production. Packing material and scrap are recycled in an efficient waste management process.
In fact, the company was certified (and recently re-certified) a ‘carbon neutral manufacturer’ by no less an authority than the UK-based Carbon Neutral Company, the leading provider of carbon reduction solutions in the world. Among scented stick manufacturers, it is the only company in India to have this certification.
The company has about 20 manufacturing locations across India. Its main plant is at Mysuru. The workforce consists mainly of rural women. About 50,000 of them are employed across the country, and receive training in rolling agarbattis .
The most critical and difficult step — the infusion of the perfume — is done at the factory. This is because it requires a specific expertise: liquid perfume has to be reproduced in solid form in sticks and cones, ensuring that the fragrance does not lose its distinctive quality, even when burnt at high temperatures.
Backed by research
In fact, the NRRS research and development team is said to be behind many new market trends in incense and packaging. It creates and blends about 500 fragrances – and it takes over 60-70 ingredients to make some fragrances! The raw materials are sourced from contract farmers.
It is no wonder, then, that the company has the ISO 9001:2008 certification for quality.
The NR Group now comprises several companies – N. Ranga Rao & Sons/NRRS (making the flagship Cycle brand agarbatti); Ripple Fragrances Pvt. Ltd. (Lia car and room fresheners and IRIS lifestyle home fragrances); Rangsons Marketing Services (the marketing wing with over 5,000 distributors); Natural & Essential Oils Pvt. Ltd./NESSO (floral and herbal extracts for botanical research); the NR Foundation (the non-profitable, charitable branch that takes care of all CSR activities); N Ranga Rao & Sons Exports (which handles the export side); and Rangsons Electronics Ltd. (Defence solutions). All businesses are independent.
CSR, Marketing
The founder’s strong belief in contributing to society is what has propelled the company’s CSR activities. The main thrust is on education at all levels of society, with special emphasis on empowerment of the differently-abled school drop-outs, and economically backward sections and women.
Cycle Pure Agarbatti holds a 15-20 per cent market share in the more than ₹2,000-crore organised Indian agarbatti industry. The company has plans to double both its capacity and the number of outlets in the coming years.
However, it is said that labour availability has become a real challenge as the core workforce — women — often migrate to other jobs. Another factor causing concern is the increase in the price of raw materials and difficulty in obtaining bamboo. Cheap Chinese imports are also making inroads into the incense stick market.
Cycle Pure Agarbatti’s innovative marketing campaigns have linked its products to cricket, festivals and even everyday occasions. The brand’s association with cricket goes back a long way — it sponsors several cricket tournaments every year and its ‘Pray for India’ campaign during the 2011 World Cup was so novel that it attracted favourable comments from the public.
Apart from this, Cycle Pure Agarbatti has won several awards in various categories. The most recent award was the ‘Par Excellence Award’ at the ‘National Conference on Quality and Innovation’. It has also been awarded the ‘Most Promising Indian Brand’ by the World Consulting and Research Organisation for its impact on the way in which agarbattis are viewed.