Chennai, Oct. 15 Harendra Doshi, a Chennai-based jewellery maker, drove about an hour-and-a-half to a company-owned fireworks depot in T. Nagar, among Chennai's top business districts, and blew up close to Rs 3,500 on fireworks for his children for Diwali.
No matter the economy is up or down, "we cannot afford to play down festivals, as they are more of religious nature," he says.
However, it does not mean that the fireworks industry itself is immune to hard times. According to Mr A. P. Asaithambi, President, Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers' Association, due to a delayed monsoon in the northern belt, licensing issues at the retail end in some parts of the country, and lower production this year, the industry, which usually grows over 15 per cent year-to-year, is expected to register a marginal growth if not remain flat this year.
He says almost 70 per cent of the total industry revenue comes from the North and West Indian markets. Mr Asaithambi's Eagle Fireworks, is a major player in the North. "UP and Haryana are our key markets. As there was a delay in the monsoon, order bookings from these markets were low in terms of volume," he says.
Asked whether illegal Chinese imports would impact sales, he said Chinese crackers are sold only in a few pockets along the border. "It's very negligible in quantity."
With no bang expected in the market, the industry did not introduce any new technology this year except for a few in aerial display items. Mr NRK R. Ravindran, Chairman, Standard Fireworks, says though there were a lot of new innovations in China (the core design and functional technology to the Indian industry comes from China), the industry as a whole did not take any initiative to manufacture new cracker varieties this time around. However, the Rs 240-crore Standard Fireworks, the market leader in India with around 15 per cent share, has introduced 20 new varieties. The company also has two manufacturing units in China, from where it exports to the US, the UK and a few European countries. As the southern markets, which contribute close to 60 per cent of its turnover, are still vibrant, the company expects to post at least 15 per cent growth this year.
Kaliswari Fireworks, another major player, hopes to register 8-10 per cent growth this year. Mr A. P. Selvarajan, a company partner, says there were only 11 months of production this year since Diwali is in mid-October (last year it was in November). Also, there were a few accidents at some facilities in Sivakasi in August. "As the Rs 1,500-crore industry is entirely labour-oriented (crackers are 100 per cent handmade), we could not make up for the production loss," he says.