Bisleri goes green naturally

New Delhi: The Ramesh Chauhan-promoted Bisleri International, which pioneered the packaged drinking water business in India, catering to consumers' need to have hygienic drinking water while on the move or even at home, is literally changing its colours and going for a makeover.

The brand that was till now marketed as packaged drinking water (cleaned through reverse osmosis) will now be available in a natural avatar.

Bisleri International will invest Rs100 crore for the project which constitutes a Rs40- crore investment in two plants in Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh in line expansion, Bisleri International chairman Ramesh Chauhan said. The plants will come up next year.
Chauhan said the rest of the investment of about Rs60 crore would go into infrastructure development. The investment would be funded through internal accruals.

Launching 'Bisleri Natural Mountain Water' he said the company was looking for four more locations from where we look to source natural water. The likely locations would be in South and West India he said. Bisleri has 23 plants across the country producing bottled water.

Bisleri Natural Mountain water will be available in aqua green packaging against the blue packaging of old and will be available in six sizes. The company is also planning an aggressive marketing and advertising campaign with a two-year budget of Rs60 crore.

Chauhan said the new packaging has been adopted in order to stand apart from the others and in Chauhan's words, "As leader, we want to differentiate ourselves and hence have adopted this aquagreen colour," he said. Priced at a significant premium to packaged water Natural Mountain Water will be available for Rs20 per litre.

The natural water segment, which accounts for about 5 per cent of the total bottled water segment, is expected to grow by leaps and bounds as health awareness and disposable incomes rise. According to the company the foray into spring water will be followed by an entry into the packaged ice segment (Bisleri Ice) as well into flavoured, vitamin and sparkling water categories. The company is said to be setting up R&D facilities for ice and studying various packaging options.

Ramesh Chauhan, chairman, Bisleri International expects to sell 10 million cases of Bisleri Mountain Water over the next two years- a turnover of Rs200 crore. The bottled water industry is worth Rs1,000 crore in India and is growing at 40 per cent per annum. It is projected to reach Rs5,000 crore by 2010. The main players in the spring water segment are Himalaya, Catch and Leh Berry. At present Himalaya leads the segment with a 50-per cent market share.

Bisleri claims to have a 40-per cent market share of the organized packaged water market. The natural spring water market is very small and accounts for 5 per cent of the entire segment. Bisleri is projecting a turnover of Rs300 crore this financial year, as against Rs220 crore last year.

Chauhan says he is also preparing for an entry into the US market with his spring water and is talks with US authorities for this. He would not export India-bottled Bisleri into US, but would set up a bottling operation there as transportation costs are a huge obstacle in sourcing the product from India. "We are in the process of getting the regulatory approvals for the venture," Chauhan said.

He said Bisleri was at par with companies in the developed world as far as meeting international standards were concerned.