The “Tata” Bisleri

We don’t ask a shopkeeper for “packaged drinking water”, we ask them for a “Bisleri”.

Yes, the brand is so strong that no one among st us needs an introduction to it.

Bisleri was originally an Italian company created by Felice Bisleri and it entered Mumbai in 1965 with the packaged drinking water brand. Four years later, Mr. Ramesh Chauhan with his brother Prakash Chauhan and his cousin brother Vijay Chauhan acquired the company for Rs. 4 lakhs, market rumours say.

Bisleri currently has over 130 operational plants and 4,500 distributors across India and neighbouring countries and makes a profit after tax of more than a 100 crores per annum!

So the question is why the “Tata Bisleri” deal is the hot topic of the town?

Well Mr. Ramesh Chauhan is 82 years old now and it is said that his daughter is “not interested” in handling the said business. So, for obvious reasons, Mr. Chauhan will have to do some succession planning for Bisleri and hence, they are in talks with various groups like the Tata’s for handing over Bisleri to them, so that the brand goes on…

For Tatas, the deal makes sense because the Indian bottled water market was valued around Rs. 19,315 crores in FY2021 and is expected to grow at approx. 13% per annum. Several companies including Coca-Cola through its brand Kinley, PepsiCo's Aquafina, Bailley from Parle Agro and IRCTC's Rail Neer compete in the segment but they all trail the market leader Bisleri and hence with this acquisition, Tata’s can consolidate their position in this segment!

The Tata Group "will nurture and take care of it even better," although selling Bisleri was still a painful decision, Mr. Chauhan said. "I like the Tata culture of values and integrity and hence made up my mind despite the aggression shown by other interested buyers”., he added.

If this deal goes through, it would become the largest deal in the Indian FMCG space.