'We aim to be a ₹5K-cr revenue firm by 2025'

Bottled water company Bisleri International has been working overtime to increase its manufacturing capacity and to expand the distribution footprint for its carbonated beverage portfolio to reach its ambitious growth target.

In this interview, Angelo George, CEO, Bisleri International, tells Akanksha Nagar that premiumisation will be a key pivot of its growth strategy.

Edited excerpts:

Bisleri expects its premium brand Vedica to become a ₹100-crore brand soon. How premium can you go in a category like water?

Vedica Spring Water is a key thrust area for us in our premium play. It now comes with NSF certification and the company has introduced it in a luxury glass bottle at a price point of ₹350. It is available in all top restaurants and luxury hotel chains. We also have Vedica Himalayan Sparkling Water (priced at ₹175 for a 300-ml bottle) - this launch was timed in October last year to coincide with the festive season. Since its launch, we have seen encouraging signs with the brand now being placed at premium 5-star restaurants.

Bisleri Vedica has grown 2.5 times from the pre-pandemic years (2018-19 to FY22).

We are looking at scaling up its production and have set up a dedicated team focusing on driving sales, mainly targeting the HoReCa category (which contributes to about 50% of the total pie of Bisleri Vedica).

This is a healthy mix in terms of familiarising consumers with the product in HoReCa and then ensuring repeat purchases in trade.