Nestle restructuring water biz; Robert Coblee to head business

Mohini Bhatnagar
26 March 2003

Nestle’s brand Pure Life has been on the decline in the past year mainly because it faced stiff competition from brands like Parle’s Bisleri, Coca Cola’s Kinley and Pepsi’s Aquafina apart from distribution problems as a consequence of which it had very little presence in the market.

Nestle has been trying to revive this business and in the last two years and is now planning to launch drinking bottled water in a new format. However, the company is as yet unwilling to publicise its strategy.

Pure Life was launched in and around New Delhi two years ago. Nestle’s bottled water business actually has never done well in India even during times when the business was booming prior to the ‘pesticides in bottled drinking water’ issue. Industry analysts feel the restructuring of its water business might arrest the fall in Nestle’s beverage business.

Nestle India managing director Carlo Donati admits his company’s error in strategy in an extremely competitive market. “We have reworked the packaged water model and modified the distribution and costing at various levels. Nestle will launch a new model in terms of product, communication, distribution and marketing.”

Pure Life, when launched, was positioned on the purity plank and targeted at ‘family,’ which was modified last year and repositioned on the ‘stay active and fitness’ platform. Pure Life is priced at Rs 12 for 1 litre, which is Rs 2 more than the price of Parle’s Bisleri and Coke’s Kinley, the market leaders in the bottled water drinking market.

A month ago the Indian packaged water industry was dealt with a double-whammy with the publication of findings by a leading environmental group, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). CSE’s findings revealed that the best-known local brands available in the Indian market have massive doses of pesticides and other chemical contaminants. Nestle India ranked among companies like Parle Bisleri, Coca Cola, Pepsi and numerous others whose brands had unacceptable levels of pesticides.