The Company continued its aggressive spending on the LINC brand. The spending on Advertisement & promotions was Rs.13.68 crs as compared to Rs.9.70 crs in the previous year, growth of about 41%.   Besides signing Katrina Kaif for UNIBALL brand, the contract with SRK for Linc Brand was renewed for another year. We also associated with 4 of the IPL teams – Kings IX Punjab, Deccan Chargers Rajasthan Royals & Kolkata Knight Riders, which was again the first by any brand in our industry. These investments are made with an idea to make LINC truly an international brand.

In the financial year 2010-11, the sudden political and economical turmoil in our focus markets particularly YEMEN, EGYPT & Middle East slammed a brake in the Company’s expected growth of 30% in exports.

We had almost a flat growth in exports, which grew by only 6.4% from Rs.52.18cr in 2009-10 to Rs. 55.50cr in 2010-11.

Nevertheless, we expanded our reach to 10 new countries totaling our exports to over 30+ countries in 2010-11 under LINC Brand.

The positives of 2010-11 despite all adversities and challenges were –

• Export revenue split between LINC BRAND and OEM grew from a ratio of 67:33 in 2009-10 to 91:9 in 2010-11 which means in the global market the LINC brand presence increased by over 20%.

• New markets were explored in Africa and they should make up for the losses in 2010-11.

In 2011-12, we believe with introduction of specially designed new products for specific markets coupled with new strategies and with our supporting infrastructure we should be scaling new heights and expand aggressively. We are trying to engage in strategic partnerships with our distributors.

I believe in my team’s ability to move ahead at a faster pace so that my plan to increase the company’s export from current 22% to 50% of the total revenue is met in next 3-5 years.

During first 5 months of 2010-11, the Company achieved a topline of Rs.101 Crores (PY - 97 crores), a growth of about 4% Year-On-Year, which is much below our expectations.

Your Company continued its engagement in several CSR activities, which also indirectly help the brand reach to the hearts of people. SPELLINC, the English spelling competition, which reached its 13^th year with overwhelming participation of over 4.50Lacs students, including teachers & principals of various school across from 7 cities. It acts as a stimulus for the school children to improve their English language skills.

The Company continued to organize its Teachers day program in few major cities in association with DHWANI, a well known musical group from Kolkata. It has become very popular amongst all the teachers in a very short span of 3 years.
 
The Company continued its bold Green initiative – “REFILL MORE”, a unique campaign which encourages the consumers to use more refills instead of discarding the pens, thereby reducing the usage of plastic in the environment. To observe World Environment

Day, LINC organized a road show - “LINC with GREEN” on June 3rd, 2011 in the heart of the city of joy. It saw participation from number of schools and NGOs of Kolkata.

Before I conclude, I express my appreciation to the Board for their wise counsel and guidance, while adhering to high standards of corporate governance. My sincere thanks to all our channel partners, distributors, vendors and employees for their enthusiasm and dedicated contribution to the Company’s performance. We truly value the continued patronage of our esteemed customers. And last but not least, my fellow directors join me in thanking you once again, our loyal shareholders  for your continued confidence and support.