Living on a prayer: Cycle Pure Agarbatti at 75

Your grandfather, N Ranga Rao started Cycle Pure Agarbatti in 1948. How did it all start, and how did the brand name come to be ‘Cycle’?

 

We come from a very small village in Madurai district with a family lineage of either a teacher or a purohit (priest). My grandfather was the true entrepreneur in the family. Born in 1908, he lost his father when he was just 12 years old. So very early in life, he realised that he had to educate himself to move ahead in life. As he couldn't afford to go to school, he would go to the wholesale market, buy some provisions, and come and sell them to the store outside the school, and that's how he managed to get by. He also realised that he had to upskill himself so he managed to strike a deal with a local typing Institute, and thus he learnt typing and shorthand. With all of these skills, he managed to land a job after his matriculation.  

 

He left his ancestral village and went to Coorg because that’s where the opportunity lay. By the time India gained independence in 1947, he had already become a competent accountant and pretty knowledgeable about running businesses as well. At this point in time, he got a government job. But he dared to dream and wanted to pursue his vision of starting his own business. My grandmother supported him initially with seed capital by pledging her jewels. 

 

Thus he came to Mysore and started a small distribution business with ‘Agarbatti’ (incense sticks) and other essential puja products in 1948. Because of his understanding of business, he felt he had to build a core competence. And so he realised that in the incense sticks business to go ahead, you have to create your fragrances. So in 1949, he was one of the first ones to import books from France and Germany. It took him almost a year to get it by post, but he read these books, set up his own perfumery lab, and created the best fragrances possible in those days for incense sticks.

 

Around 1950, one of the products that he had launched became successful in the market, but it looked like it was an unbranded product. The shopkeepers would call it by my grandfather's name or would call the product by the pack colour or the packaging. And that’s when grandfather realised he needed to create a symbol and a logo that everybody understands no matter where they were from, or what their financial background may be. The language they speak or their culture shouldn't matter, it should be agnostic of everything. And that's how the word ‘cycle’ occurred to him. ‘Cycle’ is something that post-independence was aspirational, yet affordable and that personified freedom. That's how in 1950 he coined the 'Cycle' brand agarbatti and logo.

 

Over some time, a lot of philosophical values of what ‘cycle’ meant, such that it personifies ‘hope’ were also added on to the brand with the simplicity of the symbol, and how it is the same for everybody. No matter who you are or what language you speak, a cycle is a cycle. Just like our Cycle agarbatti- it's a great unifier. And that's something my grandfather realised very early that building on the core competence is key for progress. And even today, that's one of our key differentiators - that this family secret of fragrance creation has been passed on from generation to generation. 

There are multiple things that I had to put in place to ensure that we sustain and perpetuate the business on one side and the family on the other as well. The business challenges remain for us to continue to be innovative. Because as a brand and as a company, we were always ahead of our times right from the time of my grandfather. We revolutionised the packaging of incense sticks. Earlier it used to come in tin boxes. We were the first ones to use the duplex board packaging that you see today. We were the first company in India to get into an FMCG mode of distribution for an unbranded product like ‘agarbatti’. We innovated a lot with fragrances, products and variants, and started the export business as well. 

 

So when I came in and joined the business, my focus was on how to scale now that the platform was set as an ethical business. I could go and discover new markets and new opportunities. At that stage, scaling the organisation from an HR perspective, getting the right people in place, and professionalising the owner-managed business, and yet keeping the family values intact, was one of the biggest challenges for me. 

 

After that, getting technology into the organisation was another big step. We were on a legacy system - getting on to ERP and now we are on SAP across the organisation. Even though we have always embraced technology, the last 10-15 years have majorly seen digital transformation. So getting that on track was a challenge of course. 

 

Apart from that, how I still keep my ear to the market, and yet get a global view is one challenge. Another bigger challenge I've been having in the last five to seven years is to transition into a 'multi-product, multi-category manufacturing and distribution company while keeping quality at the centre. The brand has expanded its portfolio from traditional incense sticks to scented candles, diffusers, and vaporisers, among others. We’ve also forayed into spiritual products, prayer accessories, and air care products.

 

How has a Cycle adapted to today's changing consumer sentiment, particularly in the urban milieu where traditional practices are not so prevalent? How do you plan to connect as today's millennials and Gen Z consumers are also quite mindful of brand messaging and authenticity? 

 

Surprisingly, majority of the Gen Z and millennials and the rest still believe in spirituality, in doing good, in giving back to society, in connecting with nature, and in ethical businesses. And that's exactly down our alley because we are the only zero-carbon incense manufacturer. We've been zero carbon for about eight years now. We plan to completely offset our entire plastic footprint as well by 2026. We are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified packaging. We use completely global standards fragrances in every one of our fragrances. We have every possible ISO certification that you can imagine for employees’ and workers’ health and safety. So it's a very ethical business where we use completely recyclable packaging for the inner packaging of the products as well. As a business we've always believed in doing the right thing every single time, ensuring that the future generation has opportunities that we all did. This connects with the modern users, and that's how we are connecting with the next generation. And of course, we have social media to thank for that.  

 

How are you looking to boost product penetration further for a category like incense sticks, and how do you ensure product relevance with the changing times today?

 

I think our product will remain relevant as long as it connects with prayer and spirituality. Also, it is the least expensive, most potent aromatherapy product because of the effect it has on your mood, it's proven in ‘aromachology’. So that spiritual offering and hope is what we are trying to deliver. It's not the medium but the ambience that has to be created for one to revel in that prayer that we're trying to fulfil. And the relevance of the product, both, from a peace of mind, well-being standpoint and a prayer and a connection to God standpoint, I think are intact in the short and long terms. That's not too much of a concern.

 

The category in itself has an 85% penetration in India. 85% of the billion population uses the product. Of this, AC Nielsen puts our market share at about 15% of the organised market, but there's no precise estimate because there are so many unorganised players. This penetration is predominantly urban availability in general Kirana stores right next to one’s homes. It's all about reach and distribution so it's logical in that way. 

 

Today at 75, we export to coincidently about 75 countries as well. 

 

The challenge for us lies in this entire unorganised sector of unbranded players, how to become relevant and how to become more prominent. That is through advertising and constantly communicating what we stand for and what we believe in. We being predominantly a Southwest brand are expanding our network in the North and the heartland of India. And rural distribution has become a key aspect of India’s improving logistics. Just like every other FMCG in the country, where the next (phase of) growth will come from rural India- it is the same even for us.

 

Who do you consider as your closest competitor in the space?

 

So every state has different competition. It is very regional and very localised. We're probably the only national player as in each state, and each market, there are multiple regional competitors everywhere. Because it is so unorganised there are over 3,000 different manufacturers.

 

Cycle also has a history of collaborating with cricket. It recently also acquired the title sponsorship for the India Western series. What are the opportunities that an at-home Cricket World Cup league brings and how relevant is it for a brand like yours? 

 

We've been looking at opportunities that unite the nation as one because we need to be present there. And what bigger opportunity than cricket when a nation prays together, right? And so we've been advertising in cricket as a medium to build awareness for the brand from as early as 2005 and we've been consistent with that. And, with our tagline of ‘everyone has a reason to pray’ the third umpire fit in perfectly. 

 

I'm a big fan of the West Indies cricket team, and so we've been sponsoring West Indies cricket for some time now. 

 

Having said that, we have no intention of being part of the World Cup as a sponsor. Cricket as a medium has too much clutter. If you want to be visible, you have to be on it consistently. It can't be a one-off event like a World Cup or anything like that. So if you see the brands that are there in the World Cup, they have been there for three to four years consistently and that's when recall increases. Our Cycle and third umpire campaign is an example so to speak. So we'll definitely keep our ‘Pray for India, pray for Bharat’ campaign going on during the World Cup.

 

How has Cycle adapted to the evolving digital landscape? How do you sync the spiritual with the technological in today’s times? 

 

We have created an omni-channel experience for users through our online website, which is an e-commerce site, apart from the company-owned and operated stores. 

 

We also have our own spirituality and wellbeing newsletter online called Soulveda.com, where we put out quality content that revolves around spirituality and every pack comes with a QR code, providing every detail about the product - from the procurement of raw materials to the process involved in its creation.

 

The company also launched 'Pure Prayer App' that offers prayer services such as helping consumers book pilgrimages, stream live footage from temples across the country, and even book a priest to visit their homes to perform rituals.

 

What’s the roadmap ahead for the legacy brand?

 

Right now Cycle is synonymous with incense. 

 

We are running a campaign for our 75th year, titled, 'Agarbatti bole toh cycle, cycle bole toh Agarbatti'. But eventually, we want to stand for spirituality and well-being on a holistic level as a brand. We intend to ensure that whenever anybody thinks of home fragrance or prayer, Cycle comes to be the top-of-mind brand.