Times Private Treaties Invests In New Horizons

Times Private Treaties' initiative of acquiring business models and clubbing them generates awareness about waste management.

Times Private Treaties penchant for enterprises with a difference continues in its investments in Astrel Genome, a company that marries technology with ancient knowledge to develop products in the biotech-pharm space, on the one hand, and in Eco Reco, India’s first e-waste management company.

Astrel Genome is a research based biotech company with core competencies in the field of healthcare, cosmeceuticals, peptones, natural extracts and nutrition. The company has, for instance, developed a product to treat Psoriasis, a skin disease.

Eco Reco has a first-of-its-kind-in-India mobile shredding van which it deploys to clients’ locations to ensure 100% secure data destruction from hard disks and other informational devices. The process involves on the spot eradication and destruction of data devices, with the help of mobile shredders. Ecoreco extends point to point service under one roof for collection, dismantling, remarketing, data security & destruction or safe disposal of hazardous waste.

Only about 5% to 10% of the over 330,000 tonnes of e-waste generated in India gets processed in the organised sector. Kabadiwallas handle the rest in the informal sector but have the advantage of having a more door step presence and often a relationship with the clients. In their first year of operations, Eco Reco handled 1,300 tonnes of e-waste. That was 18% of their installed capacity of 7,200 tonnes. The biggest challenge was that the Concept of ‘e-waste’ was not very prominent in India.

It was not merely a question of creating awareness of new service category but to establish a relatively new entity.

The firm had limited resources & marketing spends and that’s where the partnership with Times Private Treaty kicked in. Eco Reco needed high impact communication through advertising and direct, impactful engagement with the audiences in order to build brand saliency.

The strategic partnerships and brand-building initiatives paid off. As BK Soni, Chairman, Ecoreco Eco Recycling, says, “There is a substantial growth in numbers of new clients since 22nd April, 2008, the first ad on Planet Earth day. We now have more than 200 corporates across India and most of them know us because of several campaigns through Times Group Publications. Key clients attracted due to brand campaign visibility include Reliance, Siemens, Colgate, Lubrizol, Infosys, HCL, HDFC & more, as there was tremendous brand equity generated."