Bucking the Trend

Manpasand Beverages aims to have revenues of ₹5,000 crore in the next five years.

- Ajita Shashidhar

Even as a bulk of the Indian consumer product goods companies grapples with the demonetisation of the ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes, and the low demand thereof, father-son duo Dhirendra Singh and Abhishek Singh of Vadodara-based Manpasand Beverages claim their company has registered the highest ever growth in the past six months.

“Consumption in rural India hasn’t stopped. Our beverages are priced below ₹10, and there has been no impact there. ₹500 and ₹1,000 denominations are luxury in these markets,” remarks Dhirendra Singh, CMD, Manpasand Beverages, which gets around 75 per cent of its revenue from rural, and tier 2-3 markets.

The ₹557-crore company, which hopes to close this fiscal with a revenue of ₹803 crore, is gearing to double its volume growth from 1.7 lakh cases per day to 3.5 lakh cases per day (one case has 24 packs of juice).

Rural has been Singh’s focus ever since he launched the brand in the mid-nineties. The former ONGC employee recalls driving across states for days, observing retailer and consumer psyche in smaller markets and being convinced that there were abundant opportunities in these markets.

Singh started selling Mango Sip in small towns and villages in Eastern Uttar Pradesh where brands such as Frooti and Godrej’s Jumpin (which was taken off the market later) had a strong presence. Soon Mango Sip began to eat into their shares by offering higher margins to retailers. “Both consumers as well as retailers seek value in rural India. While they do buy big brands because they believe the quality is good, if a brand manages to offer both quality and higher margins, there is a natural attraction towards the latter,” Singh states.