Ascent Meditech’s Flamingo flies to a higher trajectory
Led by its flagship brand Flamingo, Ascent Meditech Ltd is betting big on the rapidly-growing Rs6,000-crore Indian market, which has been growing at a CAGR of over 18 per cent in the last five years. Ascent is a leading player in orthopedic soft goods (OSG), mobility, wound-care and healthcare product categories, with over 350 SKUs and, as the market will continue to maintain its momentum, the Mumbai-based company has chalked out a comprehensive plan to explore the market with a much ramped-up capability and capacity. It had started its journey way back in 1991, with manufacturing products under OSG (pain management) and healthcare products categories.
The company is looking to take its revenue to over Rs600 crore in the next 3-4 years from the present Rs250 crore. While India is its major market, Ascent Meditech is also exporting to over 45 countries with around 20 per cent of its revenues coming from exports. The major markets include the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. Though it has presence across four categories, OSG products account for over 65 per cent of its total revenues.
Apart from ramping up its capacity, the pan India player, which competes with names like VISSCO, Dynamic Techno and Tynor in the organised market, is also gearing up on the sales and marketing front in a big way. Backed by the UK-based private equity player LeapFrog, which has made an investment of about Rs70 crore, Ascent has unveiled a new TV campaign, starring its band ambassador Hrithik Roshan, saying ‘What you do, ultimately matters’ in the new normal. The story in the campaign revolves around the central offering of pain management solutions to various lifestyle problems through its four top-of-the-line Flamingo products, namely heat belts, knee caps, lumbar sacro-belts and anklets.
“As we look to explore the opportunities, we are also strengthening ourselves in a more holistic manner and that is where we have adopted a multi-pronged approach to strengthen our market presence in a significant manner,” says Rajiv Mistry, founder & managing director, Ascent Meditech Ltd. “As part of our strategy, we are looking to communicate to our consumers afresh through this new campaign, as we are seeing a distinct change in consumer behaviour and mindset. On the other hand, we are ramping up our product portfolio with support from a newly set-up manufacturing facility”.
The company, which started its journey with just four SKUs, has been proactively introducing new products across its categories. During this pandemic, it also entered the personal protection space, introducing FlamiMask, FlamiMask Plus and Flamitizer under its flagship brand Flamingo.
Online presence
Meanwhile, Ascent Meditech is now geared up to build up its presence in the online space as well. The company launched its e-commerce platform, making Flamingo products available anytime, anywhere across the country. Meanwhile, it is also making its products available on other e-commerce platforms. In case of other platforms, it is making available premium products under a new brand Florican.
While the company is ramping up its sales and marketing effort, it is also strengthening its manufacturing capacity in a big way to build up its portfolio. The company is putting up an integrated manufacturing facility in Valsad, Gujarat, at an estimated outlay of Rs100 crore. This facility, expected to be commissioned by April 2021, will ramp up its production 2.5 times. The company now makes about 30,000 SKUs per day across its five manufacturing units in Silvassa. The new 15-acre facility is being part-financed with the Rs70 crore of growth capital raised from LeapFrog.
“During the last few years, we struggled to cater to the growing demand with our existing capacity,” admits Mistry. “Now, with this new facility coming up, we will be much better placed to step up our activities and operations”.
The company, which started off with just one product (electric heat belt) and, till 2005, only had 30 products, has over 350 products now under its flagship Flamingo brand. It is the only Indian company in the bandages category. The brand name Flamingo was coined by Mistry about 28 years ago during his electrical engineering days in Mumbai. It is synonymous with high flying and long flying – that has remained true for the brand over decades.