Liquor wholesaler KSBC proposes hospital

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - After making its mark in selling beer and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) on wholesale rates in the state, the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (KSBC), which is all set to register record sales this fiscal, now plans to build a state-of-the-art hospital.

Speaking to IANS, N. Shanker Reddy, the managing director of KSBC, said that this is part of their corporate social responsibility.

“The board of directors of KSBC has cleared this proposal and now it is for the government to give the sanction,” said Reddy.

“With just two months more, we expect to close this fiscal with the highest ever turn- over with sales expecting to cross Rs.5,300 crore, up from Rs.4,631 crore in the last fiscal,” said Reddy.

The land for the proposed hospital is located in one of their own units at Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district and the company plans to provide subsidized treatment for the weaker sections of the society.

“We can easily raise the cost to cover the subsidized treatment by a levy of Re.1 for every bottle sold. Currently, every year we sell more than 40 crore (400 million) bottles. This additional Re.1 for every bottle is not going to be a burden because even as of now, due to shortage of coins, there are times when balance can’t be given or taken,” said Reddy.

Ever since April 2006, Reddy introduced the policy of rotation-off for each employee, instead of closing down all their shops every Sunday.

As a result, turn-over of KSBC increased substantially over the years. It was also on account of launching an SMS service where their customers can send in their complaints which are addressed immediately.

“For us, our customer is the king and this SMS service has been there for a few months now. Initially, we got a lot of complaints but now it has come down as our employees are on tenterhooks. These days we get an average of 15 to 20 SMS complaints every day,” said Reddy.