Many distributors of the Indane liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) of the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. are objecting to the oil marketing company (OMC) asking them to sell products of two private brands. The company has told gas agencies to apply for food safety licence to stock and sell products like biscuits, flours, hair oil, room fresheners and toothpaste.
“We have applied for the licence and hope to get it in a month or two. They are raising too many queries. Small agencies, especially in rural areas and those that are outside the city and which do not have much sales volume, will find it difficult. We now have to create additional storage space and a place to display the items. We have to worry about pest control since these are edible items,” said a distributor.
Another distributor said it was not their job to market these or any other goods. “We were appointed to distribute LPG cylinders and not these items. The OMCs have their own marketing divisions and their staff should do the marketing. These days, when many people have switched over to purchasing groceries online, how will we be able to sell such products to our customers. Converting walk-in consumers into customers is not the job of our staff. We have enough on our hands as it is,” said the distributor.
A distributor in a rural area said these goods were being forced on them. “The company only sets targets for us. It does not realise that walk-in customers will not be much in our distributorships, and if they do come, they won’t spend money on buying biscuits or these other items as the cost of the domestic cylinder is prohibitively high. Many customers manage cooking using firewood to reduce the cost on the cylinder,” he pointed out.
However, a city-based distributor, who has begun selling these products, said that the sale was encouraging. “They see the items and pick up a packet or two. We have goods priced from ₹2 to ₹50. Nobody is being forced to buy the products,” the distributor said.
