The Growing Glassware Market Is One of the Shining Business Opportunities in India

Certain types of glassware in the market, especially for those with no branding or when design and quality is not a priority are often seen as ‘equivalent to others’ in consumer /customer’s point of view. Inevitably, that glassware would fall in ‘commodity products’ war game and resulting in smaller profit margins.

On the contrary, many of the premium quality and attractive design glassware with strong brands, are indifferent market positioning or segments and therefore, having a good chance to compete for higher profitability in return.

In an email interaction with Franchise India, Jariya Sangchaiya, Managing Director, Ocean Glass shares her opinion about the current and growing glassware sector as a profitable market.

National vs International Glassware Industry

The global glassware industry is on the brink of garnering huge demand. The demand for beverageware is likely to drive the growth of glassware all across the globe. Currently, Europe is dominating the industry owing to the increase in the urbanization, consumption and utilization of glassware, especially for alcoholic beverages and wine.

However, India isn’t lagging far behind. Riding on the back of the factors such as rapid development, increased disposable income, the emergence of easy to carry and efficient glassware and rising trend of food and beverages, the nation is expected to make its mark on the global glassware industry.

Jariya says, “India sits in the top 10 highest alcohol consumption of Asian countries. Alcohol sales are on the rise in modern India. Traditional beverages such as whisky, rum and beer continue to dominate alcohol consumption in the country. Rapid urbanization, changing lifestyles, rising disposable incomes and the world’s largest youth population has further contributed to wine’s popularity in India at the growth rate of over 14% which has made wine consumption accounts for 25% of the alcoholic segment, although it’s still small comparing other markets e.g. Europe, Americas, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and China.

Hence, there is a huge opportunity to further strengthen LUCARIS and its brand value proposition and footprint in India.”

Latest Trends Impacting the Glassware Industry

Increasing middle class resulting in rising discretionary spending levels and increasing acceptance for social drinking is driving the demand in the end-user segments such as IMFL, Beer, F&B, etc. These trends are one of the major factors fuelling the demand for glassware consumption in India.

Talking about the trends in the glassware industry, Jariya, said, “Eco-friendly trend and concern about the environment continues unabated. ‘An End to Plastic’ and a shifting to ‘Alternate Materials’ is on the top rank of eco-trend for 2019, in fact, since a few years back. How to build an environmentally sustainable business, therefore, is one of the key business strategies in the glassware industry.”

“LUCARIS is the lead-free crystal to promote the environmental sustainability of the company. We are also concerned with the environmental impact which may be caused by our business operations; therefore, we have been carrying out the following activities to promote our environmental sustainability. Recycling of glass scraps as raw materials in our production process, air pollution reduction and sewage treatment in our production process by implementing a central wastewater treatment project, making oil separator system from water and recycle of water in production. Factory waste management and separation of garbage before disposal are also one of our key actions. We also encourage our employees to participate in an environment friendly and sustainability activities,” added Jariya.

Changing Consumer Behaviour Pattern

The modern Asian consumers expect seamless shopping experiences that save their time and make their life easier. Asian consumer behaviours in shopping have been changing dramatically and their loyalties are shifting away from brands. It used to be a linear customer journey process; from awareness through consideration to purchase but now, it is much more complex, with multiple, overlapping touchpoints along the path to purchase. Consumers or customers can do online shopping, anywhere, from a desktop computer or a mobile device, via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store, and their experiences will be seamless.

“Digital has also changed our B2B business sector and that includes the way buyers look for and find B2B vendors. Since more and more B2B buyers are now millennials, more people are involved in B2B purchase decisions, and the modern B2B buyers do their own research online, our strategy has now been changed to omnichannel marketing which is the multichannel sales approach that provides the customers with an integrated buying experience through a linkage between online and offline activities,” said, Jariya.