Archies revamps franchise network

By Our Corporate Reporter

CHENNAI, JUNE 23. Archies Greetings and Gifts has recorded a negative growth in the year ended March 31, 2001. Mr. Anil Moolchandani, Managing Director, who was here in connection with the inauguration of the company's branch office, told presspersons today, this was the first year since inception the company had reported a negative growth and this was mainly due to the overall slowdown in the market with the internet also affecting its business.

The postal strike in December last year and the Gujarat earthquake at the start of the Valentine season also had their impact, he said.

Net sales were lower at Rs. 68.15 crores against Rs. 71.21 crores and the net profit declined to Rs. 9.14 crores from Rs. 13.41 crores.

The company has started revamping its franchise network under which all existing franchisees under the `Archies Gallery' banner can keep only Archies range of products. It has three categories of franchisees namely Archies Gallery, Archies-The Card Shop and Paper Rose Shoppee. After completion of the exercise the company would have only two categories of franchisees.

The C&F agents network would also be revamped and the agents would also work for enlarging the franchisees and Vision 2000 stores network. At present the company has more than 500 franchise outlets. In Tamil Nadu it has 14 outlets including one vision 2000 store in Chennai. It is planning three or four more Vision 2000 stores in the city.

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Section  : Business
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