Mumbai, Nov 1: Competition forces just about everyone to ferret out the customer. Even if it is a company selling a port - a product long considered immune to marketing strategies. But finally the transition is taking place. According to a management consultant, ports can no longer be content being an interface between land and sea. They must be distribution agents for their client. And that is exactly what Gujarat Pipavav Ports Ltd (GPPL), the first private sector port company in India is setting out to do. The company is in the process of developing the country's first seamless multi-nodal transport system. Soon, all that exporters will have to do is book their cargo with the port. The port will have the consignment picked up - from a warehouse, in say, Moradabad and delivered to the client's warehouse, in say, Hamburg.Says Nikhil Gandhi, vice chairman and managing director of Gujarat Pipavav Ports, "The customer is not a king, but an emperor." But will he bite the bullet? Gandhi believes that the ideacan be sold as the move is a sound business proposition. To start with, exporters have to often deal with half a dozen agencies just to transport their goods - a trucker to deliver the goods from the warehouse to the nearest railhead, the railway authorities, another transporter to take it to the port, and finally to the stevedore and shipping lines. All this, Gandhi believes, forces people to waste time on non-core activities. With GPPL, once the cargo is picked up, the exporter can call it a day.
But will it save the exporter some money? Saving a customer the hassle may get GPPL the higher end of the market - the high value customer, but not generate volume. Currently every delay in the chain adds to an exporter's cost. It could be demurrage, longer waiting time at ports, or delays at customs. The risk involved in all this will now be absorbed by GPPL and could translate into significant cost savings for clients, especially if calculated over several consignments. It is this that customers will reallyneed to be convinced of before Gandhi splays out the net.
The groundwork started some time ago. For several months now Gandhi and his marketing team have been crisscrossing the northern and central states, trying to tap potential customers.
Says Gandhi, "It will take us some more time to convince exporters of the benefits." GPPL is starting with four states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. The potential is tremendous. To start with there are the bulk imports. Demand for LPG, petroleum, chemicals and other liquid products will touch half a million tonne in the near future. LNG imports are estimated to be in the region of 2.5 million tonne - but all of this may not materialise in the near future. Crude imports could be the big earner with estimates of 6 million tonne in the future. In containers alone, deoiled cake accounts for a million tonne per annum and is expected to increase to four million tonne in next two to three years.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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