RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GROWTH OF PRESSURE COOKER SECTOR:

y The pressure cookers manufacturers must launch awareness campaigns to exploit the huge potential of the pressure cooker market in India. Currently the penetration of pressure cookers is low in India. The penetration of pressure cookers on the national level is 270 for every 1,000 households. In northern India, penetration is 750 while in western India it is 602 per 1,000 households. y Companies should launch awareness campaigns about pressure cooking and fuel saving. The saving of fuel by using pressure cooker amounts to Rs30 billion. y The Government of India should remove the excise duty on pressure cookers and rationalize sales tax structure. Currently the excise duty on pressure cookers is around 10%. This will reduce the prices of pressure cookers and increase demand. y Manufacturers must launch advertising campaigns in rural areas on the advantages of cooking with a pressure cooker. In the rural areas, the penetration is 146 for every 1,000 households. Rural market is a highly untapped with people not educated about the benefits of pressure cooker. With the average income per household increasing in rural areas people will be able to buy branded pressure cookers. y Most of the manufacturers face the problem of distribution channel where they are not able to reach untapped market. This has led to a big gap. Tie ups with Cooking Gas companies will help them cover more grounds and pressure cooker can be sold along with gas connections. y Government has set up Aanganwari in every village. The help of these social workers can be taken to educate rural population about the benefits of pressure cooker. y In the consumer goods market the 4 Ps of marketing has a great significance. There should be a balance between these 4 Ps. At the moment Promotions and Place looks like a concern so the manufacturers should invest in proper promotional activities and make the product available at comfortable distance to all. y The urban market is highly evolving and innovation in product range always drives attention and buying. The manufacturers should always look to innovate and come out with better technology and safety functions.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HINDALCO:

a) Increase capacity expansion: With the help of the study conducted we see that there is huge prospects in the consumer markets for pressure cooker as well as the clients are having major capacity expansions. So evolving along with the industry is the call of time. b) Look for new client base: Though Hindalco is in deficit of providing required amount of raw materials now and even though future shows an average growth of 30% still a double capacity expansion might be too much for the market to absorb with the existing client base. So Hindalco must look out for future buyers of aluminium circles from now itself. c) Reconsider Pricing: All the clients interviewed showed dissatisfaction with the amount of premium charged by Hindalco. Its understood as Hindalco is the only manufacturer for circles in India so it can set prices on will. But pressure cooker being a price sensitive market, even a difference of Rs 20 is a big difference. It can be seen by the latest step taken by Stovecraft and Leo Metals to reduce their operating cost which would mean less orders from these clients in the future. d) Caution: The major buyers of Hindalco circles are Hawkins and TTK which buy more than 80% of circles produced by Hindalco collectively. So much dependence on these two clients might backfire in the future with either or both of them backing out. As for now proper relationship should be managed with these clients and look out for more options in the B2B markets. e) Co-Branding: Hindalco is a huge brand and can aid small and medium enterprises to come out with better promotional activities which would aid their sales and in turn increase orders from them. This would also develop a good relationship with the clients. Hindalco can convince new clients to buy circles from it at desirable prices as most small companies dont prefer aluminium circles due to higher cost. An option of Co-branding will convince them to pay a goodwill amount as well. f) Improve relations with clients: Most of the clients felt they are unheard and Hindalco pays no attention to their problems. There is a perception in the minds of smaller clients that the company does not bother about them under the influence of larger clients. This would hamper setting up of newer client base in future with capacity expansion plans.