What routes of globalization has the Mayor group chosen to go global?
This is one game that India has permanently lost to its
arch-rival Pakistan-manufacturing and
exporting sports goods. Historically, when India and Pakistan
were one before 1947, Sialkot, now in
Pakistan, used to be the world's largest production centre for
badminton, hockey, football, volleyball,
basketball, and cricket equipment. After the creation of
Pakistan, Jalandhar became the second centre
after Hindus in the trade migrated to India. Soon Jalandhar
overtook Sialkot and till the early 1980s it
remained so. However, when the face of the began to change in
the 1980s and import of quality
leather and manufacturing equipment became a necessity for
quality production, Pakistan wrested the
initiative as India clung to its policies of discouraging
imports through high duties and restrictions. As it
was, the availability of labour and skills was a common factor
in both Sialkot and Jalandhar, but with
Sialkot having the advantage of easier entry, most of the
world's top sports manufacturers and
procurers developed an association with local industry in
Sialkot that continues even today. Ten years
later, in the early 1990s, when Manmohan Singh liberalised the
norms for importing equipment and
raw material required for producing sports goods, it was too
late as majority of the global majors had
already shifted base to Sialkot.
In 1961 the late Narinder Mayor started the first large-scale
sports goods manufacturing unit,
Mayor & Company, thereby laying the foundation of an
organised industry. Even today, more than 70
percent of the industry functions in an unorganized manner.
Starting with soccer balls, Mayor
expanded to produce inflatable balls like volleyballs,
basketballs, and rugby balls. Today his two sons
Rajan and Rajesh have built up into five companies engaged in a
wide array of businesses, though
sports goods remain the group's core business. While the parent
trading company, Mayor & Company,
remains the leading revenue-earner to the tune of Rs 55 crore
annually out of a total group turnover of
Rs 85 crore-plus, Mayor's second venture, the Indo-Australian
Mayor International Limited, is spinning
another Rs 15 crore. Mayor international is a 100 percent
export-oriented unit (EOU) exclusively
manufacturing and exporting golf and tennis balls.
The product portfolio of the company comprises the
following:
Inflatable balls
• Soccer balls and footballs (Professional, Indoor, Match and
Training, leisure toy)
• Volley balls, rugby balls (Volley balls and Beach Volley
balls)
• Australian rugby, hand balls (English League, Union and touch)
(Australian rules, Australian
Rugby League balls and laces)
Boxing Equipment
• Boxing and punching balls (Boxing and Punching Balls, Head
Gear, Gloves, Punching Mitts and
Kits Punching Bags & Bags Sets)
• Gloves
• Goal keeper's gloves (Football / Soccer)
• Boxing gloves
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Cricket Equipment
• Worldwide distributor for Spading Cricket Bats, Balls and
Protective equipment.
Hockey Equipment
• Worldwide distributor for Spading Hockey Sticks, Balls and
Protective equipment.
Based in Delhi, Rajan Mayor, 41 is the CMD of the group, which
also comprises an IT division
working on B2B and B2C solutions; Voyageur World Travels in the
tourism sector; a houseware
exports division specializing in stainless steel kitchenware,
ceramics, and textiles; and a high school.
Younger brother Rajesh, 34, is the executive director and looks
after all the divisions operating in
Jalandhar. Technical director Katz Nowaskowski divides his time
equally between India and Australia,
where he looks after the group's interests. "While inflatable
balls are our prime competence in our core
business, we are presently focusing on golf balls, for which we
are the sole producers in South Asia.
Out of a total Rs 300 crore of sports goods business generated
in domestic marker, most of which is
supplied by the unorganized players, golf balls constitute a
miniscule amount and therefore we came
up with a 100 percent EOU for producing golf balls. Later the
same facility was utilized with little
moderation for tennis balls too," says Nowaskowaski.
Clarifying that the sports good industry in India only includes
playing equipment and not
apparels or shoes, D K Mittal, chairman of the Sports Goods
Export Promotion Council and joint
secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, has certified Mayor group
as the number one exporter since
1993 till date, barring 1996. However, SGEPC secretary Tarun
Dewan points out that being the
number one exporter does not mean that Mayor is the number one
brand being exported. "Actually we
have tieups with Dunlop, Arnold Palmer, and Fila for
manufacturing golf balls. For footballs and
volleyballs we have associations with Adidas, Mitre, Puma,
Umbro, and Dunlop. We manufacture
soccer World Cup and European Cup replicas for Adidas, which is
a huge market. Only 400 balls used
for actual play in the World Cup are manufactured in Europe and
that too only for sentimental reasons,
otherwise we are capable of delivering products of the same, if
not better quality. Now since we
manufacture balls for them, we cannot antagonise them by
producing balls of similar quality with our
own brand name. Secondly, I agree that competing with such big
giants in the world market in terms
of branding is a task that is well beyond our reach at the
moment. However, we are trying to brand
ourselves in the domestic market and that is one of the prime
focus areas in the coming year," says
Rajan.
Coca-Cola, Unilever, McDonald's, American Airlines, Disney Club,
and other such big brands
come up with huge orders at times for golf balls with their
logos for promotional schemes. However,
there is no mention of the producing country since these
companies do not want to show that balls
they deliver in the US are being produced in Asia, "Not only is
our quality good enough; labour in India
is cheap enough to churn out a much less expensive product in
the end. Yet, the main threat to our
industry comes from countries like Taiwan and China, who have
already cornered a chunk of world
markets in tennis, badminton, and squash rackets. This is
primarily because of two reasons-slow
response to our needs in tune with the market requirements from
the government and lack of
infrastructure. And most importantly, tags 'Made in China' or
'Made in Taiwan' are more acceptable in
the West than 'Made in India' or 'Made in Pakistan'. One of the
mottos of the Mayor group has been to
make 'Made in India' an acceptable label in the West. For that
we stress quality, timely delivery, and
competent rates. Yet, a lot depends on perception value, which
in our case is sadly on the negative
side, much owing to our government's stance over the years.
Things might be improving, but the pace
is very slow and as our economy drifts towards a free market
scenario supinely, it might just prove to
be too little too late in the end," says Rajesh.
Today, Mayor group is sitting pretty as its competitors, Soccer
International Sakay Trades,
Savi, Wasan, Cosco, Nivia, and Spartan are only trying to catch
up in the inflatables category. With 1.2
million dozen golf balls, Mayor is way ahead of its competitors.
The company is planning to enhance its
manufacturing capacity to 1.5 million dozen golf balls next
fiscal. With approval from the worlds top
two golf associations-the US PGA and RNA of Scotland, demand for
its product is not a problem, the
company's senior marketing officials point out. With the markets
in Mayor's current export
destinations-Europe, North America, Australia, and New
Zealand-all set to expand in the coming years
after the present slump, Mayor want expand its sports goods
business that caters to 60 percent of its
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overall exports. Though 40 per cent of exports come from
houseware manufacture in Delhi and
Mumbai, with export centers in the same countries for its sports
goods, just about mainting this
business at its present state, and concentrating entirely on
sports goods is what the Mayors are intent
on.24
With nearly 2000 skilled workforce; quality certification from
ISO 9001:2000 and ISO
14001:2004; and having spread to more than 40 countries, Mayor
and Company is obviously sitting
pretty.
