Macmillan India goes online

IRIS

Macmillan India Ltd., a leading player in educational publishing, has forayed

into the Internet space with its new initiative, Emacmillan, which will focus on

on-line education and providing web related development and services to sister

concerns abroad.

The company announced the setting up of the new initiative at an analyst meet

held in Mumbai on March 22.

As part of the new drive, Macmillan has launched three educational portals.

The portals will provide on-line support to teachers (elt.emacmillan.com),

coaching to students appearing for entrance examinations

(success.emacmillan.com) and executive development programs

(develop.emacmillan.com) in alliance with leading educational institutes of

India.

In an exclusive interview to myiris.com, Macmillan India managing director,

Rajiv Beri said, `We believe that the Internet is a terrific medium for

education dissemination, especially in a country like India where distances are

huge and quality education available only in certain pockets`.

e-business currently contributes sales worth Rs 80 lakh. The new initiatives

are expected to bring in sales worth Rs 3-5 crore in FY 2003.

The company also plans entry into the vernacular medium in increasing its

presence in regional markets. Macmillan hopes that the shift from vernacular to

English medium in schools and the possibility of de-control of curriculum

content at state-run schools will expand its markets. But considering the high

fragmentation of the education market and governmental control over state

educational boards, success of the new venture remains to be seen.

Macmillan India is part of the Germany-based Verlagsgruppe Georg Von

Holtzbrinck group, Europe`s third largest publisher. It derives 57 per cent of

sales from educational publishing. Sales for the third quarter FY 2001-02 stood

at Rs 13.53 crore, up 54 per cent compared to same period last year. But profit

after tax for the first nine months of this fiscal stood at Rs 8.73 crore, down

9.9 per cent from that of last year.

The management has attributed the flat growth to the consolidation in the

information processing division over the past two years due to restructuring and

relocation.

According to Beri, the solution lies in spreading the net to bigger markets,

especially the US. Macmillan India started its operations in US, the largest

publishing market, in 2000. Beri attributed a hesitant attitude towards

outsourcing as the main reason for the US not being on the top of Macmillan

India`s customer list in the past. But the US has now realised the importance of

outsourcing and Macmillan India has entered the market at the right time, he

added.

The foray into international markets is likely to help the company gain

access to new areas like industrial documentation and cataloguing. Macmillan

India`s US and London offices are expected to drive the business in this

segment.

Other initiatives include advertisement composing for a leading global

yellow-pages company and data conversion and coding business with establishment

of a new `Edata` division. The company is also looking at acquisitions in areas

like financial and legal information processing.

The Macmillan stock was recently listed on the National and Bombay Stock

Exchange. It was quoting at Rs 299.15 at the BSE as of March 22, 2002.

Source: myiris.com