Introduction of Bisleri

In 1967, Bisleri an Italian company, started by Signor Felice Bisleri,

first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India. It started a company
calledBisleri India. In 1969, Ramesh Chauhan, the Chairman of Parle Exports,
boughtover the brand. In those days, Bisleri packaged drinking water was
available inglass bottles.Being a returnable package owing to various other
problems such as breakageand weight, in 1972-73, Bisleri was made available
in PVC (Poly VinylChloride) bottles. After this plastic packaging was
introduced, things started tochange, and sales increased rapidly.The upsurge in
the sales of Bisleri started in 1993 as Ramesh Chauhan sold off the Parle stable
of brands, including Thums Up, Limca and Gold Spot.Recognising the
potential of the packaged drinking water market, he then wenton to concentrate
on making Bisleri a top selling brand in India.Marketing andBrands
BlogBisleri a brand name synonymous to mineral water in India. It
hasapproximately 60% market share in packaged drinking water in country.
Brandis owned by Parle Company, which bought over Bisleri in 1969 from
Italiancompany. Initially, Bisleri faced the problems of acceptance from
consumers. Itwas difficult to advertise for a company something as a bottled
water, which iscolourless, tasteless and odourless. In mid eighties company
changed its packaging to PET bottles which shows transparency and clear
water toconsumers. This gave mineral water market a boost.In India, water is
scarce and quality is poor so initially the consumers were onlyforeigners and
NRIs. Therefore, to increase its customers base, company cameup with
comfortable and affordable price bottle which was a great success andshowed
400% growth.India bottled water market is appox is worth Rs 1,000-1,200
crore (Rs 10-12billion). Seeing this growth over the years, many new players
have enteredthe market. Amongst them Kinely from Coke, Aquafine from
Pepsi, kingfisher and now Himalayan from Tata are main players of industry.
There are many upsand down in last couple of years but brand recall of Bisleri
is amazing whichhelped company. In order to differentiate form other players
company tries tocome up with different and new campaigns on regular
intervals
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Marketing of maineral water-BisleriIn case of food and water, whenever
people are suspicious of the quality of product they dont eat unhygienic food
and instead of having non purified water they prefer to stay thirsty. Bisleri itself
seems to play on this need for safety,coining the popular tag-line Play it safe.
The advertising helped differentiatethe product from its competitors who, more
or less, communicated nothing.Bisleris seal was also breakaway (hence
irreplaceable), even though thismanufacturing process of sealing seems to be
slow and could clog up theassembly line.Somewhere along the now that space
was occupied by Aquafina and Kinley.The safe breakaway seal was
replaced by a regular seal, but the change wasntcommunicated and more
variants (packaging) emerged. Some of these variantswere sold
simultaneously. They were manufactured in different parts of Delhi,and one
had the website www.bisleri.com printed on it, while the other
hadwww.bisleri.co.in printed.So, the mistake was a complete lack of
communication on Bisleris part. Nowthey have a new product out - a mineral
water brand (as opposed to a packageddrinking water brand), and they are
advertising it. Still, there are three types of Bisleri bottles in the market in Delhi
right now. Now again Bisleri changed its packaging and came up with a new
bottle. It has been general feeling that Kinleys new packaging is more
acceptable by the people as it is easy to grip it. In a packaged water market,
where the product isnot so differentiated, the company has to constantly
innovate new brandingtechniques, distribution channels, advertising and in fact
new packagingtechniques.According to the Bureau of India [ Images ]n
Standards there are 1,200 bottledwater factories all over India (of which 600
are in one state -- Tamil Nadu).Over 100 brands are vying for the Rs 1,000-
crore (Rs 10 billion) bottled water market and are hard selling their products in
every way possible -- better margins to dealers, aggressive advertising, catchy
taglines.... In such a scenario,The Strategist takes a look at how it all started --
with Bisleri -- and howRamesh Chauhan, chairman, Parle Bisleri created a
market out of pure water.Excerpts from a conversation with Prerna
Raturi:Western Express Highway in Mumbai has been the route
to success for twowell-known men. One was the make-believe
super biker cum thief Kabir aka
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Marketing of maineral water-BisleriJohn Abraham i n t he
Bol l ywood fl i ck Dhoom; and t he ot her i s t he
craf t yRamesh Chauhan, who has masterminded the runaway
success of the Rs.500crore bottled water brand, BISLERI in the
country, from his 1st floor office int h e
s p a r k l i n g g r e e n a q u a
f i l l B I S L E R I
b u i l d i n g . BISLERI was originally an Italian Company
created by Signor Felice BISLERIwho first brought the idea of selling
bottled water in India. BISLERI then wasintroduced in Mumbai in
glass bottles in two varieties bubbly & still in 1965.Parle bought
over BISLERI (India) Ltd. in 1969 & started bottling
Mineralwater in glass bottles under the brand name BISLERI. Later
Parle switchedover to PVC non-returnable bottles & finally advanced to PET
containers. Since1995 Mr. Ramesh. J. Chauhan has started expanding
BISLERI operations. In2003 BISLERI announced its venture to
Europe.For over 30 years, BISLERI has been the pioneer in the bottled
water industrywith its innovations and an eye for perfection. And ever since it
was establishedin 1969, BISLERI has constantly searched for inspiration in
nature.
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Marketing of maineral water-Bisleri
The journey till now
1969: Buys Bisleri bottled water from an Italian company, Felice Bisleri. It
was bottled in glass bottles then.Early-1980s: Shifts to PVC bottles. Sales
surgeMid-1980s: Switches to PET bottles, which meant more transparency and
lifefor water.1993: Sells carbonated drink brands like Thums Up, Gold Spot
and Limca toCoca-Cola for Rs 400 crore.1995: Bisleri launches a 500 ml bottle
and sales shoot up by 400 per cent.2000: Introduces the 20-litre container to
bring prices down from Rs 10 a litre toRs 2 a litre.1998: Introduces a tamper-
proof and tamper-evident seal.2000: BIS cancels Bisleri's licence of a water
bottling in Delhi [ Images ] sincesome of the bottles did not carry ISI label; the
licence is restored one-and-a-half months later.2002: Kinley overtakes Bisleri.
The national retail stores audit by ORG-MARGshow Kinley's marketshare at
35.1 per cent compared to Bisleri's 34.4 per cent.
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Marketing of maineral water-Bisleri

EXPANSION
Chauhan may be short, stocky and nearing 70, but his enthusiasm and
vibrancyover the years has not diminished an iota. After all, despite the entry of
a slewof MNCs (including Coca- Cola with KINLEY and PepsiCo with
AQUAFINAand their cutting edge marketing gimmicks, Chauhan has not lost
his first mover advantage in the segment. He has been able to sustain and grow
his marketshare in the over Rs.2000 crore Indian bottled water mart. We have
nocompetitor. Our biggest competition is our own incompetence, he
grins,describing how it is the unorganized sector, which is presently walking
awaywith the largest chunk of their potential consumers. BISLERI claims
66%market share of the organized segment. If we were present where
theunorganized players are selling, they would not be there at all,
grimacesChauhan.
Parle Bisleri Limited: Expansion plans
Parle Bisleri Limited is undertaking a major expansion to increase
itsmanufacturing facility as also to widen the distribution network. The
total project cost is estimated around Rs 260 crore. Of this, Rs 60 crore will
beutilised to expand the existing manufacturing facilities wherein the
bottlingcapacity would be doubled to 200 million cases per day. Around Rs
200 crorewill be spent on increasing its distribution network five-fold over the
next twoyears. As a result, the company will have 10-lakh retail outlets backed
by a fleetover 5,000 vehicles.Parle Bisleri also plans to procure recycling plants
from Japan, for its PET bottles, and set up at least two such plants in Chennai
and Delhi at a cost of Rsfive crore each by this year-end. Crushed and
compacted bottles from other parts of the country will be transported to the
two plants and a better part of thecompacted PET will go into manufacturing
polyester yarn.Though the company plans to come out with an IPO, two years
down the line,the present capital expenditure plan will be financed entirely
through internalaccruals.
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