'Bisleri to double sales in two years; not selling business'

India’s largest bottled water brand Bisleri is “not selling”, said Jayanti Chauhan, the 37-year-old heir to the business that her father founded, as she firmly settles into the driving seat.

- Suneera Tandon

The vice-chairperson of Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd has also set a target to more than double the company’s revenue to ₹5,000 crore by 2025, from just over ₹2,300 crore in FY23.

In an interview on Wednesday, JRC, as she is popularly known within the company, said she is supercharging the 54-year-old brand to appeal to Gen-Z consumers, stepping up manufacturing to expand its footprint to reach more consumers, and grab a larger share of the $8.5 billion carbonated soft drinks (CSD) market.

Chauhan, who has been part of Bisleri for the last 14 years, agreed that earlier, she was “a little bit restricted”, but now, she is involved in “pretty much everything”. It was her first media interaction since the cessation of talks between Bisleri International and Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL).

In March, TCPL informed exchanges about the end of its negotiations to buy Bisleri, stating that it had not entered into a definitive agreement or binding commitment with the company. According to an Economic Times report in November, TCPL was in talks to buy the packaged water brand for ₹6,000-7,000 crore.