RINL opens its retail outlet in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: The long-pending demand of the people in the north region and thousands of steel plant employees has become a reality now.

Rashtria Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the flagship company of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has opened its retail outlet to sell its products directly to the end-users.

The trade unions of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant had been pressuring the management of RINL to open the company’s retail outlet in various parts of the country. However, all these years, the management had put off the proposal.

CITU, the recognised trade union of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant persisted with the demand of opening the company’s outlet at various locations in the city and at other places in the second phase.

“When the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) Visakh Refinery and Visakha Dairy, the second largest milk business establishment, are selling their products directly from retail outlets, why couldn’t the VSP open retail sales counters? We welcome the retail outlet finally,” said J. Ayodhyaramu, who heads the trade union at the steel plant.  

RINL management is taking several business plans and strengthening the distributor network to ensure higher sales. In fact, there is no MRP on steel products.

This leads to distributors fixing their own price according to demand and supply. As there are no company’s retail counters, consumers and plant employees are forced to purchase steel at market rates, Mr Ayodhyaramu said.

On Wednesday, RINL CMD P.K. Rath inaugurated the outlet at B.C. Gate at Peda Gantyada.

The outlet was built at a cost of `4.36 crore in an extent of five acres with a storage capacity of 16,000 metric tonnes of steel and a 100 MT weighbridge.

Retail outlet facilitates the delivery of material to low volume buyers in customised length.