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Life is indeed in a fast lane, espe­cially for working profession­als. Getting to work on time has become a struggle in rush hour traffic. Because of the same rush, sneaking in a proper meal has become impossible. So the daily drudgery of chomping on ‘momo’, ‘chowmein’ and other fast food mark the lunchtime of most working professionals, while they still worry about their health. Now the burden of eating right and healthy can be transferred to Fit Box, an upstart that has for the past six months been delivering healthy meals to the doorsteps of their cus­tomers. Entrepreneur Demin Shres­tha, 24, owns and operates Fit Box.

Shrestha is a fitness fanatic turned fitness entrepreneur, with a health club also on the cards. “I have been involved in fitness activities for the past six or seven years,” he says. “So I decided to make this my profession. I decided to launch Fit Box realizing the importance of healthy food for a fit body. Starting Fit Box was not difficult, he explains, for Shrestha’s family has been in the hospitality business for over two decades and hiring chefs and kitchen staff for meal preparation was piece of cake.

But what makes Fit Box meal nutritious? “All our meals are made in consul­tation with dieticians and nutritionists. And the type of food you get depends on such vital stats like your age, weight, your food allergies and health issues,” Shrestha says.

What about the pres­ence of processed food like salami in some of their meals? “What you get depends on your meal plan. Some processed food is allowed in Keto meal, for instance. But if you don’t want processed food, you can tell us in advance and we won’t include them.”

The other thing that makes Fit Box lunch healthy, Shrestha points out, is their use of health food options like brown rice, olive oil, quinoa and vegetables.

The prices of Fit Box’s lunches start at Rs 3,250 for three weeks (Mon­day-Friday), with various options like ‘Low calorie’, ‘High calorie’, ‘Deluxe’ and the new ‘Keto’. All meals are prepared at Fit Box’s kitchen in Gwarko and delivered warm and fresh in personalized lunch boxes. Registration is pretty simple: you can either call them or send a message on their very responsive Facebook page. The best part for the digitally challenged is, you can pay cash on delivery, at once, for three weeks. Costing a daily average of little more than Rs 200 (‘Basic’)—which can reach up to Rs 400 (‘Deluxe’)—Fit Box might be considered borderline expensive.

But Shrestha says that the prices are justified given the quality, nutri­tional value and convenience of their products. “We do not com­promise with production and use best possible ingredients in our meals,” he says. “Looking at the health benefits of our meals, the prices are not expensive.”

In the six months of its opera­tions, Fit Box has delivered to up to 300 customers a day (it currently averages around 150). Customer response too has been satisfactory, Shrestha explains, but as in the case of any other businesses, there is always that expectation for more. “If we go bigger, we might be able to reduce our prices too,” he says. “The idea is quite new in Nepal. Hope it catches on”.

At the end of 2018 Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) enforced some flexible rules to perk up the slumbering stock market. But going into the New Year, stock investors are still not interested in buying. The flexible rules were prescribed by a panel led by deputy NRB governor Shiva Raj Shrestha following a steep fall of the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index. Yet the benchmark index retreated below the 1,200 threshold on Jan 3. This despite the new rules allowing banks to raise total loan amount from 25 percent to 40 percent of core capital, and to give 65 percent of the value of collat­eral stocks against loans, up from 50 percent earlier.

Another reason for depression in stock market is change in capital gain tax calculation

The central bank has also min­imized the weightage of risk in margin lending—loan against col­lateral of stocks. Earlier, on Dec 5, Nepse index had nosedived to 1118.13 points. Increased supply of stocks, tightening margin lending, high lending rates and the govern­ment’s view of stock-market as ‘a risky business’ have all contributed to the bearish mood.

The benchmark index was bullish just before the govern­ment had presented its fiscal bud­get in May. Nepse index had on April 21 witnessed its yearly high of 1438.49 points.

The index was widely expected to go up following the introduction of the automated share trading ear­lier this year. However, increased supply of shares because of right issue and further public offering of the BFIs for the increment of their capital resulted in plummet­ing stock prices in the secondary market. Commercial banks have issued right shares worth Rs 50.09 billion for increment of their paid up capital, as instructed by the NRB. “When there is increased supply the stock prices are bound to go down,” says Prakash Rajaure, a stock market analyst.

Market capitalization has dropped by Rs 212.65 billion in a year’s time, according to the Nepal Stock Exchange, indicating a steep drop in stock prices.

Another reason for depression in stock market is change in capital gain tax calculation. The fiscal bud­get 2018-19 provisioned 7.5 percent capital gain tax when the bonus or right shares are traded. Earlier, the government used to enforce 5 percent CGT on trade of bonus and rights share in the secondary market. Along with the increase in the CGT to 7.5 percent on May 29, the CGT calculation method has changed too. To protest this move, stock investors had halted share trading on June 5.

After continuous slide of the benchmark index, a few investors had even staged a fast-to-death, demanding the resignation of the finance minister.

Stock analysts say the market’s future trajectory depends on whether the central bank changes the lending rates again and whether the supply of shares slows down.

Nepal Lube Oil limited, a licensee of Gulf Oil International, which manufactures and distributes Gulf Lubricants in Nepal organized its 27^th AGM on Dec 27 at Yak Palace, Pulchowk. The AGM was held in the presence of Company Chairman/MD Arun Kumar Chaudhary, the Board of Directors, Company Secretary and shareholders.

The company made a major announcement of distributing 40% dividend to its shareholders—Rs.30 (Proposed Cash Dividend per share) and Rs. 10 (Proposed bonus per share).

Established in 1964, Nebico Biscuit Pvt Ltd is one of the first biscuit and confectionary manufacturers in Nepal. Now it is one of the very few companies in Nepal to complete 50 years of suc­cessful operations. Today, Nebico’s products are house­hold names. Gandhi Chhetri, general manager of Nebico, who joined the company a year ago after working for many national and international FMCG brands, talked to Sunny Mahat of APEX about Nebico’s future plans.

What do you think is the secret to the company’s longevity?

Consistency is the key. We have been manufacturing top-quality products without any deterioration in our quality. But we have also not seen expected growth in the market. The main products of Nebico—Glu­cose, Thin Arrowroot and Coconut biscuits—are established and well known. There is another biscuit called “Khaja” which we have been manufacturing for the past 50 years. There are generations of people who recognize Nebico as a brand. But we have not been able to cater to younger consumers.

What is stopping you?

We’ve had a problem with Research & Development as well as with technology. We have failed to innovate in order to cater to the young crowd. The choices of the youngsters are evolving and we have not been able to attract them with new products. But our strat­egy is changing. We are launch­ing new products aimed at young consumers and are also develop­ing products for health conscious consumers, while also retaining existing consumers.

What has been the company’s biggest opportunities and chal­lenges during its long run?

Let me start with the chal­lenges. We as a company feel sandwiched. Multi-national com­panies from India, China and abroad are coming up with high quality products. On the other hand, local Nepali products have lower prices. We are fighting in the middle. We cannot go down on prices because we have to be profit­able. At the same time, we have not been able to climb up due to lack in R&D and innovation.

As for the opportunities, we have strong goodwill and brand recogni­tion all over the country. Our dis­tribution network is also probably the strongest in the industry with an all-Nepal supply chain. Besides that, we have a good range of products and our re-sellers/trad­ers and consumers are satisfied with our quality.

Our employees are also our big strength. We have peo­ple who have spent their lives working with us with utmost dedication, and have become part of one big fam­ily. Where else in Nepal would you find employees with such low turnover? Some of them have been working with us for past 35 years.

Since Nepal is an open market, how difficult is it to compete with imported products?

We don’t consider European prod­ucts our competition because they are very expensive and have only a niche market. The Indian products are our main competitors but we do not get into price wars with them. There are Indian products with sim­ilar prices but we have the advantage of having more content, i.e. more net weight. Suppose if they are selling a packet of biscuit for Rs 10 with 100 gms of content, we will have the same price but the content will be 120 gms. This is a big factor behind purchase decisions, especially in rural areas.

What are the immediate Nebico’s plans for market expansion?

Nebico is a 55-year-old company and we reached a turnover of around Rs 1 billion last fiscal. But this is not enough for a company of our stature. We need to bring adolescents and the youth into our basket and we are definitely looking into increasing our presence in this market.

We are also launching some high range products to compete with imported goods. Also, we are thinking of expanding the business to North East India (Seven Sisters States), because we know they have a huge market for Nepali products. We are already negotiating with importers there.