More than 10 hours of power cut here for the last few weeks not only dampened the festive spirit among industries but also made it expensive for the consumers.
One of the “must” purchases during the festival season are sweets and savouries for distribution among friends and relatives.
Apart from a decline in purchase by consumers - in small or large quantities, many of those who would make murukkus and sweets at home for sale during Deepavali had cut down orders this year as there was no assurance of power supply for the preparatory works.
One of the leading manufacturers here says that though the per capita demand came down this season, there were many consumers who preferred to buy sweets and savouries from shops as they could not make it at home.
The large sweet manufacturers had to depend on generators and this had pushed up the costs.
Long hours of power cut had affected the entire production line – those who supply the packing materials were unable to do so on time, those who print on the packing boxes were unable to take up large volume orders, sweet manufacturers had to use generators, and in some shops even the number of lights had to be reduced, says the owner.
The small-scale suppliers cannot afford to have generators.
Hence, they took time to meet the orders.
