V Archies was established in 1979 by a Delhi Based person named Anil

V Moolchandani and his brother Jagdish Moolchandani .

V In 1984 ,company launched its first outlet in Delhi named ´Gift
Galleryµ .
V In 1987 ,the first exclusive Archies gallery was set up in Kamla Nagar,
V situated in the heart of the Delhi University Campus.
V In 1990, the brothers established Archies Greetings & Gifts Pvt.Ltd.
V with its three product lines i.e.Greeting card,gift items & stationary
products.
V In 1994, Anil decided to install a printing unit for the company and
tied with the US based Gibson card manufacturing company
V In 1995 Archies was incorporated as a Public Limited Company with
its
V initial Public offering of Rs.74 million.
 Analyse the circumctances in which anil moolchandani started
archies and highlight the reason for company runway success.
Why do you think archies could not sustain its profatibilaty
growth in 2000-01?

Ans: archies was the brainchild of delhi based anil moolchandani. In

the late 1970s he decided to buy and sell good quality posters
through mail order catalogs then anil decided to sell books
containing lyrics of hit english songs in addition to the posters.
After that anil entered into the greeting card bussiness. He
observed that in india cards were typically sold out of dusky shoe
boxes marked ´birthdayµ and ´aninversaryµ kept in the corners
of the stationary shops.
Then in 1979 anil and his brother
jagdish moolchandani got ´archies gifts and greetingsµ registerd
as the partership concern for starting the greeting cards bussiness.
V During his visit to south east asia anil was impressed with
the exclusive greeting card shops offering good ambience
and soft backdrop music. He tried this concept in india also,
which led to the launch of first archies outlet In delhi in
1984, named ´gift galleryµ.
V In 1990, the brothers established Archies Greetings & Gifts
Pvt.Ltd
V In 1994, Anil decided to install a printing unit for the
company and tied with the US based Gibson card
manufacturing company.
V In 1995, Archies was incorporated as a Public Limited
Company with its
V initial Public offering of Rs.74 million.
V Archies sold its products through franchisees.
V The Franchisees made their own investment in the business and
V paid royalty to Archies for turnover.
V Archies Quality Control team monitored the franchise stores for
V ambience, space allocation, lighting and display.
V Divided the franchise operations into three segments.
V The Top-level franchises ran the Archies Galleries.
V The middle level franchisees ran the Archies Card shops and
V paper rose shoppes.
V The bottom level, and smaller franchisees operated the feelings
V and other retail outlets.
V Adopted ´Localizationµ strategy and come out with the cards for
V Indian festivals such as Holi, Diwali and Rakshabandhan.
V Backed by aggressive promotional campaign to create
awareness and persuade people to communicate
through cards.
V Successfully managed to built a strong brand Equity
with its Tie-ups with companies like Pepsi and Pidilite.
Organizing events and honouring winners.
V Offers and promotional scemes were there.
V Popularize western occasions in india
V Promoted their props through bollywood.
V Tap all the indian festival and occasions.
V IN THE LATE 1990, E-GREEETING came under
existance.
V To facing that threat ,archies launched
archiesonline.com in may 2000, having no charges , is
free site. Bt after that the company realized it was
earing no profits out of it. That site should be paid.that
time the company invested rs.20 million in the online
subsidiary but it just made rs.2 million from e-
commerce.
V During the financial year
V 1999-00, Archies decided to
revamp its distribution
network and replace existing
distributors by a C&F agent
network. According to the new
distribution system, in place of
68 distributors in 21 states,
Archies appointed 10 C&F
agents in 10 states who
catered to distributors who in
turn reached out to the retailers.
V ßes we agree with the improved model of franchisee
and distribution«.
V Because the biggest advantage of this model is that the
company owns the inventory , so the consumer is
ensured of seeing the entire product range that is
available.
V The shift from distributors to c&f agents cut costs
significantly«.
V Earlier this site was free of cost , having no charges«

Archiesonline.com had three major sections ²Meet, Greet and

Gift with
V following services :
Meet- Free e-mail , chat , reminder services ,greetings scheduler.
Greet-A consumer interaction area where registered customers
could

V send and receive a variety of animated e-cards/greetings online.

V Gift-Purchase gifts an get them delivered at their doorstep.
V Tied-up withElbee and Blue Dart to deliver the gifts and cards and
with
V Easy Net.com for payment gateway.
V Entered into strategic alliances with ßahoo.com, Jaldi.com,
Indiagreetings.comto secure online penetration in various youth
V because this site having no charges ,, caused a heavy
losses to the company .. So acc. To our perception this
is a better way to coming up with the site which is
paid..thts true that this idea also didn·t give the right
results as many users stopped using this website .but
this site is compliment the existing physical bussiness.it
is used as the online venture as an extension of its
bussiness rather .
it will be able Established distribution network is a
major source of competitive advantage. It has a strong
distribution network of over 900 outlets across the
country out of which 80 are company owned. The
company has also invested in building its brand image
through ads and promotion. Archies now established
itself as an one stop shop for greeting cards and gift
items. goin forward, archies strategy is to expand its
network of owned stores by opening new stand alone
exclusive outlets or taking up prominent space in
major malls in big cities. this is expected to ensure
greater visibility and help increase consumer reach.