Poddar Global
supplies broadest choices of finest
international newsprint brands
Whole industry is served to the fullest through
its countrywide supply chain of six warehouses
Headquartered in New Delhi, with comprehensive supply
chain warehouses in five major port cities of the country,
Poddar Global is a sole supplier of a premium range of
newsprint brands, imported from the world’s finest paper
mills, to almost all leading newspapers based in either
metro cities or small towns all over India. The company
has strategically set its countrywide chain of warehouses
catering newsprint to remotest geographies, such as Imphal
city in Manipur. After a thorough visit to the company’s
Kolkata warehouse, Jyaneswar Laishram from
All About Newspapers continues his trip down to
two more warehouses in Chennai and Mumbai
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Poddar Global has become synonymous
with authenticity of imported newsprint
brands, which are acclaimed best by
leading newspaper production houses in the
country. It has been nearly three decades since
the company instigated engaging in newsprint
supply business. The company boasts of its
countrywide supply chain warehouses built
in five port cities of the country. Apart from
the one in its headquarters (New Delhi),
all the remaining five warehouses of the
company are so advantageously located in
Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin and
Visakhapatnam (Vizag).
Historical flashback
Mr Sunil Poddar
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Founded by eminent senior journalist (late)
Shri Ram Karan Poddar, overall commitment
of Poddar Global is to bring a constant
‘progression’ to the printed newspaper
industry of the country. For more than 45
years, Shri Ram Karan Poddar had indulged
in social, media and educational activities
to fortify the industry. Today, the company
is under the leadership of his son Mr
Sunil Poddar,
who carries
the legacy
forward. Mr
Sunil Poddar
believes in
broadening
the horizon
through
‘partners in
progress’
business
model. The
robust team
of young and
enthusiastic professionals of the company
plays a vital role in meeting demand and
requirement of their clients, under any given
circumstance, irrespective of geographical
differences.
Poddar Global is capable of handling upto
3,00,000 metric tonne newsprint and paper
products in its warehouses countrywide.
They have direct relationship with more
than 300 customers in the Indian newspaper
and magazine production market. Poddar
Global’s wholly owned Hong Kong
subsidiary has strong banking relationships
with Trade Finance Credit line of around
US$ 20 million.
Delivery system
SS Dubey, SM Dutt and Raju Kalita (Mumbai)
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How does Poddar Global deliver newsprint
to clients? The imported consignments of
newsprint are first harboured at the respective
port warehouses, any of the five. Then
the clearing agents, on behalf of Poddar
Global, transport the materials on a 40
feet long container to the stockroom of the
client (newspaper production house). As a
unique benefit, Poddar Global offers ACP
(Accredited Client Program) to its clients.
ACP is a special status
allotted to the company by
the Ministry of Finance,
Government of India, to
allow free movement of
containers directly from the
ports to ‘custom bonded
areas’ in their respective
regional warehouses.
Here the ‘custom bonded
area’ is an especially
designated zone allotted
in every warehouse of Poddar Global and
it is set up particularly to provide customers
an added storage facility of their newsprint
in the warehouse for a certain period of
time. This designated zone is useful when a
newspaper orders a large volume of newsprint
from Poddar Global, but they don’t have
space to store them at their facility. In such
circumstance, the newspaper can temporarily
procure the product in the ‘custom bonded
area’ of Poddar Global.
Popular big brands
Warehouses in both Chennai and Mumbai
supply chain units of Poddar Global are
designed with high ceilings under which nine
newsprint stacks (or rolls) can be mounted
one over another vertically. The warehouses
in both the cities are equipped with high-end
slitting machines to trim the newsprint into
sizes required by the newspaper production
houses. Advanced forklift machines are
deployed to load and unload the newsprint
stacks in faster and easier ways. A total
of more than 150 well-trained staffers are
deputed in all six warehouses, assuring
everything gets done on time at the most
efficient and satisfactory manner.
Stockpiled stacks of newsprint in the
warehouses of both Chennai and Mumbai
are some of the internationally demanded
quality newsprint, namely, MNI (Malaysia),
Volga (Russia), Holmen (Sweden), Jeonju
(South Korea), Norske Skog (Australia),
Catalyst Marathon (Canada) and UPM
Schwedt (Germany), among others. Just a
little amount of glossy light weight coated
(LWC) newsprint paper, which are normally
used for display ads/centre spreads in a
newspaper or a magazine, are stocked for
those who sometimes come down for it.
“A few of our customers demand such
glossy papers of 48-52 gsm once in a while
for special purpose,” explains G Gopala
Krishnan, general manager, Poddar Global
Limited, Chennai. The general or SNP
(standard newsprint) brands available in the
warehouses are of 42, 45 and 58.8 gsm.
Supplies from Chennai
Biggest among all, total area of the twin
Chennai warehouses (B-24 and B-29) of
Poddar Global occupies an area of 1.25
lakh sq ft, capable to stock 44,000 metric
tonnes of newsprint at a time. “From here
we supply to the entire south Indian regions,
sometimes to the central parts like Bhopal
and Indore,” says Gopala Krishnan, adding
that nearly 50 different newspapers order
newsprint from the Chennai warehouses.
Some of the popular dailies in south India,
which have been closely associated with them
for years, are Dinamalar, Daily Thanthi,
Deccan Chronicle, Andhrajyothi, Andhra
Prabha, to mention a few.
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Discarding the speculation that the printed
newspapers are now gradually eaten up by
online news sites, Gopala Krishnan argues
that there is no such decline in demand
for print media in the Indian newspapers
market, this will not happen for the next
15-20 years. “Look at the current scenario:
numbers of new print newspaper titles have
been launched in Tamil Nadu alone over
the last few years. Existing newspapers
are alive and circulating well; new titles
like Dinaethal and Dinaseithi keep popping
up and Daily Thanthi is soon launching
its English edition. So there is no visible
panic about slowdown in the print media
market,” he explains.
“When the television was popularly
introduced for the first time to the Indian
households during the early 1980s, many of
us believed it was the end of big screen
cinema, everything would be subsided by the
newly emerged small screen technology. But
it never turned up as we expected. Cinema
and television survive in different ways of
their own. So are the online news sites
and print media or newspapers,” explains
Gopala Krishnan, signifying the indemnity
of the survival of printed newspapers in
this online era.
Mumbai caters to big clients
Built on an area of six acre land, Mumbai
warehouse of Poddar Global is measured
approximately one lakh sq ft and capable
to stock 45,000 metric tonne of newsprint.
The facility is now under planning to expand
80,000 sq ft more for stocking extra 30,000
metric tonnes of newsprint. Some of the big
fame newspapers that order newsprint from
the Mumbai warehouse include The Indian
Express, Sakal, DNA, Dainik Bhaskar, among
many others. Apart from the leading national
newspapers, a host of vernacular dailies,
weeklies and fortnightlies are gradually
surfacing in the region—all of them getting
newsprint from Poddar Global.
When asked about the future of print media,
SS Dubey, manager–business development,
Poddar Global, Mumbai asserts that there is
no such decline in the print media market
in India, as of now. “Leading newspapers
like The Times of India, Hindustan Times,
The Hindu are successfully circulating in the
market. In addition, new regional tabloids
and vernacular newspapers in Maharashtra
are phenomenally coming up. I think the
Indian newspaper market is still having room
for expansion, unlike what all happening to
the print media in the overseas. Our country
is still a land of villages where people still
need newspapers covering local activities,
such as events, festivals, celebrations, etc.
I think this is the prospect still print media
must penetrate for brand new expansion,”
he explains.
Of course, SS Dubey is very optimistic
about the development of print media
at regional arenas. “At regional levels,
some popular newspapers like Gujarat
Samachar, Mathrubhumi and others are
gaining momentum of growth. These
newspapers are introducing editions in
different cities and towns to magnify
readership and make bigger coverage,” he
says, adding that it’s good to see such sign
of growth in print media business in small
cities around Maharashtra and neighboring
towns. He indicates that tier II cities are
where the growth potential of print media
is mounted up.
As the print media market in India is
burgeoning, Poddar Global is putting plans
in place to expand their warehouses to
accelerate growth of the country’s printed
newspaper market to a new momentum.
For it they say ‘WHEREVER we deliver
WHENEVER you want’.
