Mysore Sales International Ltd. (MSIL) has decided to outsource the marketing of its premier notebooks, school bags and stationeries to overcome the problem of the serious shortage of manpower, due to which the sales had plummeted last academic year.
General Manager of the MSIL Subramanya and Manager Basavaraj told presspersons in Kalaburagi on Saturday that the MSIL has appointed super-stockists in all districts to market their premium products — Lekhak and Vidya notebooks and schoolbags. Similarly the MSIL has also appointed business promoters to market stationary items at government offices.
“This has been done mainly to overcome the shortage of manpower. Last year there has been a reduction of more than 20 per cent due to the shortage of manpower,” Mr. Subramanya said. Based on the success of outsourcing the sale of notebooks, the MSIL would consider extending the sale of stationeries through the super-stockists from next year.
To a question, he said that the MSIL would come out with new products in the notebooks by releasing long and king-size notebooks with different number of pages. To make the notebooks more attractive, the MSIL has decided to come out with the latest designs and patterns including nature, animals and sports themes in the covers of notebooks. Mr. Subramanya said that the coverage of the schools by the MSIL to market their products was only 12 per cent. This year this figure would improve considerably and the MSIL expects a growth rate of 40 per cent this year. The market share of the MSIL notebooks in the State was only 10 per cent and “we want to increase the market share of the MSIL note books also considerably,” he said.
He said that MSIL has set itself a target of achieving a target of selling notebooks worth Rs. 50 crore in the State in the ensuing academic year.
