THE NEW BEER BARON Brewing the craft from India for the globe

As we meet the craft beer maker at his headquarters in the capital, asense of urgency prevails in everyone’s work as one would see in every start-up — always nimble and agile and bettering its craft.

- Punita Sabharwal

My first meeting with Ankur Jain was in 2017, almost two-and-ahalf years back when Bira started gaining momentum. Operating out of the same location but in a far fancier office and a much bigger space, I sit down with Jain to discuss his audacity as an entrepreneur. Brand building and distribution, according to Jain, are the two key factors in making Bira a great success in a market which has been led by behemoths. As we meet Jain on a chilly winter morning and discuss issues like seasonality that a beer entrepreneur would face, Jain pours the recently launched Stout, which has a heavier taste and tends to sell more during winters. The office not only has the Bira tap but a sales ticker running across the office, which shows how much the brand has done the previous week and how much more remains to be achieved in terms of sales, keeping the company thirsty for more.

After completing his Bachelor’s from Illinois Institute of Technology in 2002, Jain continued to pursue his entrepreneurial journey for four years. Fortunate enough to find a buyer later, he came back to India as the healthcare start-up found a new owner. He took up a job at Reliance Industries in 2007, but left after a year to venture out on his own in 2008. B9 Beverages didn’t exist in its current form then; Jain began a beer distribution company. He started importing 20-30 types of beer, which didn’t exist in India. His tryst with import made him aware of the preferences of the younger generation towards lighter flavours and wheat beer. It also helped him figure out the correct price point Indian consumers were happy to shell. During this time, he found a huge vacuum in the market and decided to be the new entrant and compete with the already established big daddies of beer.

THE SEQUOIA STORY