Times Private Treaties has invested in companies that are driving growth on sustainable environment friendly business models. Times Private Treaties, the investment arm of BCCL has been among the early birds in India that has been investing in these sustainable environment friendly technology ventures, which includes Lucifer Lights & Eco Reco.

Lucifer Lights is a Pune based start up that manufactures and exports LED lights. The company has been able to trundle out a flurry of products through constant market feedback and brand building exercise. Seventy new products in less than three years are unheard of in the lighting industry. Two factors that are working in Lucifer Lights’ favor: primarily the unstoppable rising cost of power and the universal concern – be it a corporate or household – to trim the cost. Secondly, corporates are jumping onto the LED bandwagon and strong brand positioning created by Lucifer Lights is drawing their attention to the company.

Eco Reco, another Times Private Treaties investee company, has a first-of-its-kind-in-India mobile shredding van which it deploys to clients’ locations to ensure 100% secure data destruction from hard disks and other informational devices. The process involves on the spot eradication and destruction of data devices, with the help of mobile shredders. Eco Reco extends point to point service under one roof for collection, dismantling, remarketing, data security & destruction or safe disposal of hazardous waste.
Only about 5% to 10% of the over 330,000 tonnes of e-waste generated in India gets processed in the organised sector. Kabadiwallas handle the rest in the informal sector but have the advantage of having a more door step presence and often a relationship with the clients. In their first year of operations, Eco Reco handled 1,300 tonnes of e-waste. That was 18% of their installed capacity of 7,200 tonnes. The biggest challenge was that the Concept of ‘e-waste’ was not very prominent in India.

It was not merely a question of creating awareness of new service category but to establish a relatively new entity.
The firm had limited resources & marketing spends and that’s where the alliance with Times Private Treaties kicked in. Eco Reco needed high impact communication through advertising and direct, impactful engagement with the audiences in order to build brand saliency. The company now has more than 200 corporate clients across India.

Back on track after being effected due to recession in real estate market, home improvement segment has started seeing more investments, new store openings, high decibel marketing and promotional campaigns by the brands & companies in this segment.

Those who were skeptical about India’s quality consciousness in this segment need to look at the emergence of some of the strong brands such as Timbor Home, Zicom Electronic Security Systems & Welspun Retail. Not only have these brands created high awareness for their products & built their categories through effective marketing, they are also recognized as high value brands by the customers.

Creating success stories with these brands is Times Private Treaties, the investment business of BCCL. Times Private Treaties business model enables companies to build strong brand differentiators while simultaneously creating awareness of the high value that brands offer to customers. The marketing support provided by Times Private Treaties to these brands further catalyzes the growth of these companies.

For instance, Timbor Home is today recognized as the largest manufacturer-retailer of modular kitchens in India and has recently announced its plans to open 300 stores in next two years. According to a financial publication, Timbor Home currently has 72 exclusive kitchen, furniture and door showrooms and will be closing this financial year with a top line of Rs 32 crore. Moreover, the company plans to double the same next year.

Timbor is an ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified company and rated SE 1B by Credit Rating Information Services of India (CRISIL). The ratings are result of the company’s wide geographical reach and the in-house production facilities. The ratings also reflect the well-defined organisational structure and a robust business model.
Timbor Home, a Times Private Treaties has investee company, is part of the Rs.1200 crore industry growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent.

Likewise, the wheels of fortune are turning for the better for Welspun Retail, the retail arm of Welspun India Ltd and a Times Private Treaties investee company. The company has prepared a roadmap to take the tally of its total stores to 250 as early as possible.

The Times Private Treaties innovative model is based on providing brand building opportunities to help companies create their brand and unlock value.

Brands in consumer categories, due to their very fundamental nature of aggressively chasing customer’s mind map in a high clutter market, pose a huge challenge in creating highly recalled distinct brand identities. The challenge becomes multi fold when the brand is small and new. In such scenario, the companies find it difficult to allocate high budget for marketing and brand building while simultaneously having to manage manufacturing, distribution and other immediate business expenditures.

Recognizing this challenge that brands face in consumer categories, Times Private Treaties, with its innovative business model is supporting brands and companies in brand building initiatives without them having to block their cash flows. The portfolio of consumer brands range from companies in consumer durables, gems & jewelry, retail, wellness, home improvement etc. Some of the companies that Times Private Treaties has invested in this segment include Gitanjali Jewellery, Zicom Securities, Nik Nish Retail, Pantaloon Retail etc which are today recognized as successful brands in their categories.

The consumer brands category is heavily dependent on consumer advertising and brand recognition. Times Private treaties not only brings its expertise in brand building to play, it also enables companies to save on advertising outgoes while building market credibility.

Entrepreneurs who were earlier hesitant about investing in brand building due to cash flow constraints that most start ups face in their early stages of business life cycle have now realized that they can enter into an alliance with Times Private Treaties which backs through advertising currency. This enables more and more start ups to unlock the full potential of their brands while continuing to deploy funds on other immediate areas of attention such as customer experience, people and product development, logistics management etc.
Many brands have also realized while working with Times Private Treaties that it is simple strategies adopted in media & advertising which enables them to create brand differentiators that positively impact their business. More and more start ups in the consumer categories now understand importance of building brands in their overall business strategy.

Times Private Treaties, recognized as one of the seven “most innovative business models” at INMA World Congress, Miami, USA, has investments in over 200 companies.

Times Private Treaties portfolio of companies includes some impressive names like Pantaloons, Giny & Jony, Jaypee Group, Videocon, MCX, India Infoline, Lavasa, Unitek Power, Bajaj Hindustan, Zicom Security, Percept Picture Company, Nimbus Communications (through it Nimbus and its associate company NEO Sports Broadcast), Birla Life Sciences, Apollo Clinic, Archies, Indiabulls Retail (Piramyd Retail), Welspun Retail Ltd Allied Digital Services Pvt Ltd., Indiamart and Micro Technologies, to name a few.

Times Private Treaties aims is to provide brand capital and propel a company’s growth through a marketing strategy using BCCL’s (Bennett, Coleman Co. Ltd.) media. This allows the company to increase its spends on marketing and create distinct brand identities.

The intent & business model of Times Private Treaties is to support entrepreneurial companies in creating brand value. Today Times Private Treaties has invested in over 200 entrepreneurial ventures from diverse sectors such as healthcare & wellness, media & entertainment, retail, IT & ITES enabled services, consumer durables, real estate, infrastructure, power & telecommunications etc and catalyzed their growth

This innovative business model offers a great solution for local, indigenous and little-known brands to come on board in mainstream media and build brand differentiators with the support of Times Private Treaties.

The success of Times Private Treaties business model is evident in the success stories of brands such as Thyrocare, MCX, Eco Reco, Nik Nish Retail and She Comfort, to name a few which have carved a niche for themselves and become category leaders.

The Ready to Eat (RTE) category is now ready to grow as small Indian companies are using high technology food packaging processes to bring traditional Indian food to the table. With ready to eat food closer to home cooked food, Indians are fast adopting to Ready to Eat food ranging all the way from Jeera Rice to Aloo Paneer, curries to quick fries, cakes to desserts and much more.

The Indian RTE market  today is estimated to be worth INR 800 mn and shows huge potential for growth by tapping into a larger consumer base and changing lifestyles. Increase in nuclear families, growing working class families, growing working women base and rise in their disposable incomes are a few market drivers.

However, like any other evolving, high growth consumer segment,  industry players have to deal with various challenges; key ones being consumer’s behaviour and perceptions towards RTE food, inefficient logistics and infrastructure with a need for creating strong trusted brands and significant product differentiators amongst the target audience.

This has also led to some private equity action in the RTE category  with companies in the past trying to raise funds to manage product innovation, expansion, logistics and branding.

For instance, Capital Foods had received investment from Indivision I, a private equity fund.  Capital Foods is a manufacturer and marketer of packaged food products. In India, Capital Foods markets & distributes packaged food products under the brands of Ching’s Secret (Chinese cuisine), Smith & Jones (Continental cuisine), Mama Maria (Italian cuisine), Raji (Indian ready to cook) and Kaeng Thai (Thai Cuisine).

Another company, Verjinia Foods Limited, has entered into an alliance with Times Private Treaties, to reach out to  large number of metropolitan and large city dual income families, young working adults of the IT and BPO industry.

Verjinia Foods is among those companies which are leading the growth in the segment and giving a good fight to some of strong brands in the category. Having food like home is now coming straight from the kitchen and fresh in packaging. For Verjinia, it was actually coming back to home after years of exporting packaged Indian food to the Indian diaspora.

Small brands are now receiving a lot of attention from Times Private Treaties which has a portfolio that includes Sumeet Industries, Refex Refrigerants Ltd., Lucifer Lights, Micro Technologies, Refeel Cartridge Engineering, Nik Nish Retail, Access Atlantech, Thyrocare, ICRI, IIHT Ltd. and Raj Oil Mills.

Entrepreneurs who were earlier hesitant about investing in brand building due to cash flow constraints that most start-ups face in their early stages of business life cycle have now realized that they can partner with Times Private Treaties which backs through advertising currency. This enables more and more start ups to unlock the full potential of their brands while continuing to deploy funds on other immediate areas of attention such as customer experience, people and product development, logistics management etc.

Many brands have also realized while working with Times Private Treaties that it is not huge expenditures but simple strategies adopted in media & advertising, which enables them to create brand differentiators that positively impact their business. More and more start ups now understand importance of building brands in their overall business strategy.

A few examples are:

Lucifer Lights is an example of a consumer durable brand that has taken the innovation route. Lucifer Lights manufactures and exports LED based lights for various applications and unlike conventional lights, there are no emission of gases and rays. It is the first company in the world to receive a test report from CPRI (Central Power Research Institute of India) which indicates the energy efficient nature of their lights. In its own way, the company has been trying to promote small measures for much bigger cause of “Global Warming”.

Sumeet Industries, another investee company, INR 1200 million conglomerate with varied business interests that has been creating successful B2B brand across various categories.

Nik Nish Retail, a Times Private Treaties investee company, has become a name synonymous with lifestyle giftstore chain by undertaking strong brand building campaign. The company has grown ten times in last 2 years and is a clear leader in its category.

Times Private Treaties has a strong portfolio of companies in the increasingly favoured Media and Entertainment Space. These include companies like Manhattan Communications, Ok Play India, Percept Picture Company and Nimbus Communications (through it Nimbus and its associate company NEO Sports Broadcast).

Blackstone, a private equity fund, recently paid Rs 225 crore for an undisclosed stake in the Rs 846 crore Jagran Prakashan, the publishers of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.

In turn, Dainik Jagran has acquired Midday through a shares swap. The recent action underscores the growing interest in media vehicles. This interest and investments in media and entertainment space is, of course, not without a reason. According to Farokh Balsara, Media & Entertainment Leader, Ernst & Young Private Ltd. in India, “The media and entertainment industry in India has been, and will continue to be, one of the biggest beneficiaries of India’s favorable demographics.” He further adds, “Volumes of content consumption, vibrant indigenous content creation and a favorable regulatory framework, make India an attractive investment destination for global media and entertainment companies.”

“Global media and entertainment companies are increasingly focusing on the role emerging markets play in content consumption and creation. Leading global companies that fail to understand and optimize the opportunities in emerging markets may lose out on significant revenue growth,” said John Nendick, Global Media & Entertainment Leader for Ernst & Young.

A recent report released by Ernst & Young “Tune in to emerging entertainment markets: spotlight on Brazil, Russia, India and China,” highlights that in India, there is an increase in the number of channels and adoption of digital distribution platforms; the country has also become a hot bed for media content outsourcing and is the largest film-producing nation in the world. Satellite television subscribers in India, which currently account for 15% of the total 130 million television sets, are set to double in the next 2 years.

Times Private Treaties has invested in various financial companies who have benefited with successful branding and advertising. The client list includes Almondz Global Securities Pvt Ltd., Artha Money, India Infoline Ltd., Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. and SMC Global Securities Ltd. Through this alliance, Times Private Treaties consults them on building brand identity and provides business insight and solutions to their problems.

Times Private Treaties is enabling companies in the financial sector to build strong brands through advertising strategies that help overcome the clutter.

After commencing operations in August 2005, India Infoline faced major obstacles in its way. Financial services were restricted only to the metros and certain select cities of the country and were a commoditized category.

However, India Infoline has managed to generate awareness and expand its reach pan India, covering B and C segment cities as well.

Today, India Infoline has broken through the metro-centric barriers of financial services and has 759 business locations catering to over 800,000 customers.

A recent Times Private Treaties Campaign has brought the value that  advertising know-how can bring to early stage companies who are creating new market categories. The success in the financial services space clearly underscores the role that brand advertising can play in market generation, despite a much commoditized and high decibel campaign.

In today’s financial market with high competition and large number of players offering similar services, a clear branding and positioning strategy is required to make the company stand out and connect to customers.

As many as 20 Indian company names made it to the 2009 Forbes’ “Asia’s 200 Best Under a Billion” list and two Times Private Treaties’ clients- Allied Digital and Micro Technologies featured in it.

Allied Digital (the world class IT Services and Solutions Provider) and Micro Technologies (the Information Technology Innovator), both TPT investee companies, rubbed shoulders with other Indian biggies like AIA Engineering, AurinoPro Solutions, Biocon, Bang Overseas, Birla, Deepak Fertilisers, Divi’s Laboratories, Everest Kanto Cylinder, FDC, Geodesic, GSS America Infotech, ICSA, IVRCL Infrastructure, Nitin Fire Protection, Opto Circuits, Parekh Aluminex, Raj Television Network and Selan Exploration Tech who featured as the Top 20 Indian companies on this list.

Featuring for the second time on the Forbes’ ‘Asia’s 200 Best Under a Billion List’ Allied Digital, has over 2000 employees spread over 132 locations. The company has built a brand name that can compete with the best in the industry. From being ‘just a server maintenance co’ to a complete IT services company, the brand now stands for reliability and strivers for innovation in the IT services field in India.

Another Indian company featured on the Forbes Asia’s 200 Best Under a Billion List’ for consistent growth of sales and profit was Micro Technologies. A leading technology innovator, Micro Technologies have tapped various domestic and international markets and aim to display not just the technological innovation but also product diversity in various segments of vehicle, premises, mobile, other assets and also energy, health segment and rural informatics.

The top 20 Indian companies on the Forbes list have found presence due to an aggressive entrepreneurial streak that is constantly backed by strong and functional infrastructure. From world class offerings in clothing, IT and engineering etc. the Indian brand has made its presence felt globally. These companies have transformed over the years and have shifted gears to churn out consumer focused products that are fast becoming brands to reckon with.

Companies from China and Hong Kong led the prestigious list, while India featured as No. 4. Singled out for constant growth of sales and profit over the last three years, moderate indebtedness and future prospects, all these companies have sales of less than a $ 1billion (Rs. 4,850 crore).

The survey done by Forbes outlined ‘consumerism’ as the key driving force behind most of the companies in the list, and which also outlined the Asian miracle as been built on the sweat of small and midsize enterprises.

Closer home, Times Private Treaties enables small and mid size companies to secure a greater share of mind and consequently market share, thus increasing enterprise value. The unique model of Times Private Treaties is designed to share risk, accelerate growth and augment the brand value proposition.

The Times Private Treaties model has found global recognition when it was voted as one of the 7 most innovative business models by the PubliGroupe and International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) in the second edition of the “Innovative Business Models Contest”. The contest focused on identifying how media companies are extending their brand to fill a new market space, attract new audiences, and generate new revenue streams.

Says Mr. Sivakumar Sundaram, CEO-Designate, Times Private Treaties, “It is indeed an honor that TPT has been acknowledged as one of the 7 innovative business models in the world. The BCCL group has always been involved in the “metamorphosis” of the media industry in general and the print industry in particular in the country. We are an ideas company and innovation drives business strategy. Times Private Treaties is the latest example of the continuous endeavor of the organization to encourage innovation. TPT was established as a growth engine in aide of the new-gen entrepreneur seeking to launch and grow his brand. In a time span of 4 plus years, TPT has been able to partner with 250 plus entrepreneurs of India Inc. in accelerating their growth in the Brand hierarchy. TPT has also established that Print continues to be the dominant medium for launching and establishing new and emerging categories & brands in the Indian context.”

TPT was started with the vision to make advertising accessible to Indian entrepreneurs who had the potential but were faced with the paradoxical situation of choosing between growing their business vs. investing in a brand. TPT proved that it doesn’t have to be an “either/or” situation and de-risked advertising spends through the treaty model. The result has been a creation of a whole new advertiser base and increased spends amongst conservative advertisers. Moreover, TPT has been able to convince businessmen of the value of creating brands and this should augur well for the industry as a whole.

The other finalists in the fray were Glossy Media (Poland), Wonderlist.ca by The Toronto Star (Canada), Verdens Gang’s Pengenedine.no (Norway), St-Petersburg Times’ Politifact.com (USA), Autos by Winnipeg Free Press (Canada) and Detroit Media Partnership (USA).

INMA is a non-profit member organization dedicated to recognizing and extending marketing activities of newspapers, and serving as the industry’s premier marketing ideas association. PubliGroupe is a marketing and sales organization dedicated to the sale of advertising space for the media in Switzerland and other countries.