ITC Limited
ITC Limited
|
| Type |
Public (BSE: 500875) |
| Industry |
Conglomerate |
| Predecessor |
W.D. & H.O. Wills |
| Founded |
1790 (as Wills & Co.) |
| Founder(s) |
Henry Overton Wills |
| Headquarters |
Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Key people |
Yogesh Chander Deveshwar, (Chairman) |
| Products |
Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & specialty papers, packaging, agri-business, packaged foods & confectionery, IT, branded apparel, personal care, stationery, safety matches and other FMCG products |
| Revenue |
US$ 7 billion (2010) |
| Employees |
24,027 (2009) |
| Website |
www.itcportal.com |
ITC Limited (BSE: 500875) or ITC is an Indian public conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.[1] Its diversified business includes four segments: Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Hotels, Paperboards, Paper & Packaging and Agri Business. ITC's annual turnover stood at $7 billion and market capitalization of over $33 billion. The company has its registered office in Kolkata. It started off as the Imperial Tobacco Company, and shares ancestry with Imperial Tobacco of the United Kingdom, but it is now fully independent, and was rechristened to Indian Tobacco Company in 1970 and then to I.T.C. Limited in 1974.
The company is currently headed by Yogesh Chander Deveshwar. It employs over 26,000 people at more than 60 locations across India and is listed on Forbes 2000. ITC Limited completed 100 years on 24 August 2010.
ITC has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Information Technology, Branded Apparel, Personal Care, Stationery, Safety Matches and other FMCG products. While ITC is an outstanding market leader in its traditional businesses of Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards, Packaging and Agri-Exports, it is rapidly gaining market share even in its nascent businesses of Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Branded Apparel, Personal Care and Stationery.
History
The company had founded-pioneered canteens for the workers, free medical care, sports facilities and paid holidays. In 1830, the company was renamed W.D. & H.O. Wills. Their first brand was Bristol, made at the London factory from 1871 to 1974. Three Castles and Gold Flake followed in 1878 and Woodbine ten years later.
In 1901 Sir William Henry Wills formed the Imperial Tobacco Company from a merger of W.D. & H.O. Wills with seven other British tobacco companies. Imperial remains one of the world's largest tobacco companies. Embassy was introduced in 1914 and relaunched in 1962 with coupons. The last member of the Wills family to serve the company was Christopher, the great great grandson of H.O. Wills I. He retired as sales 1969.
List of products & brands
In FMCG, ITC has a strong presence in :
- Cigarettes: W. D. & H. O. Wills, Gold Flake Kings, Gold Flake Premium, Navy Cut, Insignia, India Kings, Classic (Verve, Menthol, Menthol Rush, Regular,Citric Twist, Mild & Ultra Mild), 555, Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Lucky Strike, Players and Flake.
- Foods: (Kitchens of India; Ashirvaad,Minto,Sunfeast,Candyman,Bingo,Yippee, Sunfeast Pasta brands in Ready to Eat, Staples, Biscuits, Confectionery, Noodles and Snack Foods);
- Apparel: (Wills Lifestyle and John Players brands);
- Personal care: (Fiama di Wills; Vivel; Essenza di Wills; Superia; Vivel di Wills brands of products in perfumes, haircare and skincare)[2]
- Stationery: (Classmate and PaperKraft brands)
- Safety Matches and Agarbattis: [Ship (through ownership of WIMCO); iKno; Mangaldeep; Aim brands]
Other businesses include:
- Hotels: ITC's hotels (under brands including WelcomHotel) have evolved into being India's second largest hotel chain with over 80 hotels throughout the country. ITC is also the exclusive franchisee in India of two brands owned by Sheraton International Inc.- The Luxury Collection and Sheraton which ITC uses in association with its own brands in the luxury 5 star segment. Brands in the hospitality sector owned and operated by its subsidiaries include Fortune and WelcomeHeritage brands.
- Paperboard, Specialty Paper, Graphic and other Paper;
- Packaging and Printing for diverse international and Indian clientele.
- Infotech (through its fully owned subsidiary ITC Infotech India Limited which is a SEI CMM Level 5 company)
Rural initiatives
ITC's Agri-Business is India's second largest exporter of agricultural products. ITC is one of the India's biggest foreign exchange earners (US $ 2 billion in the last decade). The Company's 'e-Choupal' initiative is enabling Indian agriculture significantly enhance its competitiveness by empowering Indian farmers through the power of the Internet. This transformational strategy, which has already become the subject matter of a case study at Harvard Business School, is expected to progressively create for ITC a huge rural distribution infrastructure, significantly enhancing the Company's marketing reach.
The company places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages; the e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of information (choupal means gathering place in Hindi) and an e-commerce hub. What began as an effort to re-engineer the procurement process for soy, tobacco, wheat, shrimp, and other cropping systems in rural India has also created a highly profitable distribution and product design channel for the company—an e-commerce platform that is also a low-cost fulfillment system focused on the needs of rural India. The e-Choupal system has also catalyzed rural transformation that is helping to alleviate rural isolation, create more transparency for farmers, and improve their productivity and incomes.
Corporate philanthropy
ITC e-choupal creatively leverages information technology to set up a meta-market in favour of India's small and poor farmers, who would otherwise continue to operate and transact in 'un-evolved' markets.
As of July 2010, services through 6500 Echoupal across 10 states, reach more than 4 million farmers in about 40,000 villages. Free access to Internet is also opening windows of rural India to the world at large.
ITC e-choupal is now being regarded as a reliable delivery mechanism for resource development initiatives. Its potential is being tested through pilot projects in healthcare, educational services, water management and cattle health management with the help of several service providers including non-governmental organizations.
Classmate notebooks were launched with the initiative of contributing 1 rupee towards the education of poor children,from every four notebooks it sold.
Classmate, has launched a programme called Classmate Ideas for India challenge. The programme would be a part of the company's centenary initiative.[3] The nation-wide programme would invite ideas of the youth, who have the potential to transform India. Classmate Ideas for India challenge plans to reach out to 25 lakh students across 30 cities, 500 schools and 200 colleges across the country.[4]
However there have been a few controversies in regarding the philanthropic works of this company. Some people claim that this company cuts over 10 million trees every year to manufacture cigarettes alone.
Forbes ranking
ITC features on the Forbes Global 2000 rankings for 2007 at position 1256.[5]
ITC is the only Indian FMCG company that features on the Forbes Global 2000 rankings for 2009 at position 987.[6]
ITC also featured on the Forbes World's Most reputable Companies List at position 95.[7]
Global and other Honours
- ITC is the first from India and among the first 10 companies in the world to publish its Sustainability Report in compliance (at the highest A+ level) with theest G3 guidelines of the Netherlands-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a UN-backed, multistakeholder international initiative to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
- ITC is the first Indian company and the second in the world to win the prestigious Development Gateway Award. It won the $100,000 Award for the year 2005 for its trailblazing ITC e-Choupal initiative which has achieved the scale of a movement in rural India. The Development Gateway Award recognizes ITC's e-Choupal as the most exemplary contribution in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development during the last 10 years. ITC e-Choupal won the Award for the importance of its contribution to development priorities like poverty reduction, its scale and replicability, sustainability and transparency.
- ITC has won the inaugural 'World Business Award', the worldwide business award recognising companies who have made significant efforts to create sustainable livelihood opportunities and enduring wealth in developing countries. The award has been instituted jointly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the HRH Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF).
- ITC is the first Corporate to receive the Annual FICCI Outstanding Vision Corporate Triple Impact Award in 2007 for its invaluable contribution to the triple bottom line benchmarks of building economic, social and natural capital for the nation.
- ITC has won the Golden Peacock Awards for 'Corporate Social Responsibility (Asia)' in 2007, the Award for ‘CSR in Emerging Economies 2005’ and ‘Excellence in Corporate Governance' in the same year. These Awards have been instituted by the Institute of Directors, New Delhi, in association with the World Council for Corporate Governance and Centre for Corporate Governance.
- ITC Hotel Royal Gardenia, Bengaluru is the first Indian Hotel and world's largest, to get the LEED Platinum rating - the highest green building certification globally.
- The Stockholm Challenge 2006 for the e-Choupal initiative. This award is for using Information Technology for the economic development of rural communities.
- United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Award at the international conference on Sharing Innovative Agribusiness Solutions 2008 at Cairo for ITC's exemplary initiatives in agri business through the e-Choupal.
- The Corporate Social Responsibility Crown Award for Water Practices from UNESCO and Water Digest for its distinguished work carried out in the water sector in India. ITC also received the National Award for Excellence in Water Management 2007 in the 'beyond the fence' category from the CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre for its leadership role in implementing water and watershed management practices.
- The watershed programme also won the Asian CSR Award 2007 for Environmental Excellence given by the Asian Institute of Management. The Award recognizes and honours Asian companies for outstanding, innovative and world-class projects. The Company also received the Ryutaro Hashimoto Incentive Prize 2007 for Environment & Development from the Asia Pacific Forum. This Award aims at promoting information dissemination of good practices towards sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region.
- The Readers' Digest Pegasus Award for corporate social responsibility, recognising outstanding work done by socially conscious companies.
- The Corporate Award for Social Responsibility 2008 from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in recognition of its exemplary initiatives in implementing integrated watershed development programmes across 7 states in India. The company also won the award in 2004 for its e-Choupal initiative. The Award provides impetus to sustainable development and encourages ongoing social responsibility processes within the corporate sector.
- The 'Enterprise Business Transformation Award' for Asia Pacific (Apac), instituted by Infosys Technologies and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for its celebrated e-Choupal initiative.
- The Best Corporate Social Responsibility Practice Award 2008 jointly instituted by the Bombay Stock Exchange, Times Foundation and the NASSCOM Foundation.
- The NASSCOM – CNBC IT User Award 2008 in the Retail & Logistics category. The Company has been recognised for its pro-active and holistic approach to IT adoption and the seamless alignment of IT with business strategy. This is the fourth time that ITC has won Nasscom's Best IT User Award since it was instituted in 2003.
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting with its Annual Report and Accounts, adjudged as a commendable entry under the Category 'Manufacturing and Trading Enterprises’.
- The Business Today Award for the Best Managed Company in recognition of its outstanding initiatives in the consumer products segment.
References
External links