Archies: The Way Indians Greet

Archies filed the application fearing that the groups will vandalize their outlets as they had in February 2001.¹ The Court's decision shocked Archies'management, for any disruption of business on Valentine's Day would translate into huge revenue losses for the company. Director Vijayant Chhabra said, "Everyone knows what happened last year. Our outlets were targeted in Mumbai, Delhi and other parts of the country. Our business has been affected severely." The dismissal of the injunction appeal came at a time when the company was facing a host of problems on various other fronts that were taking a toll on its performance. In the late-1990s, e-cards became very popular. Archies was forced to launch its own e-greetings website, archiesonline.com, through its wholly owned subsidiary Archies Online.com Ltd. in mid-2000.

Aria admitted, "We have suffered massive drops in our registered user base since we became a paid site." In addition to these problems, Archies' initiatives to convert its network of franchisee outlets into company-owned outlets and its distributor setup into a carrying and forwarding² (C&F) setup were proving to be major burdens on its finances. As a result, in 2000-01, for the first time in it's over 20-year history, the company experienced a negative growth. Turnover declined from Rs 710 million in 1999-2000 to Rs 680 million in 2000-01, while net profits for the same period declined by around 32% from Rs 130 million to Rs 91 million.³ Archies' marketshare remained at 45% between 1998 and 2000. Analysts remarked that the company's leadership status in the Indian greeting card and gifts market seemed to be doing it no good in increasing its market share and sustaining profitability.