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“Exports are still doing better than domestic business”
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Monday, 05 July, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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 The beverage industry in India has grown steadily and diversified into various types of non-alcoholic packaged drinks. With an uptick in trade, the Indian beverage industry is slated to reach $20 billion by the end of the forecast period from 2017 to 2030.
However, the Indian beverage industry has gone through profit and loss due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and consecutive lockdown and unlock restrictions.
Piruz Khambatta, chairman of Rasna Private Limited, shares his thoughts and experiences about the industry’s ups and downs and more, in an interview with Kimberley Fernandes. Excerpts:
How has the competitive landscape of the industry changed during Covid-19?
Covid pandemic is a calamity of the century and of course it will change the way people think in terms of eating, drinking, travelling and overall spending on their lives, not only now but in the future too. Of course lot of things have changed, style of doing business has changed, the way HR is carried is changed, and even the WFH (work from home) culture has started, of course it will change everything.
How will the changes affect prominent stakeholders in the industry?
I think it is the survival of the fittest. The prominent stakeholders who can survive and adapt themselves will flourish while who cannot would definitely see the negative strides.
Do you anticipate brands reinventing themselves in the beverage industry in order to gain back support and loyalty of patrons?
I think yes, evident from the last few months that lot of new brands already reinvented themselves, are in the process of reinventing, for us also we have taken this opportunity as a silver lining to really compete in the market on a health and wellness portfolio.
How has your marketing budget and marketing mix been affected due to the pandemic?
Of course things are changing we are going more towards social media, we are going more towards influencers campaigns and reliance on press has to be less because of the obvious issues with press readership and so is reliance on TV channels, which has seen lot of fragmentations.
Are consumers inclining towards healthier product choices given the rising number of health-conscious trends and what role do your natural fruit powders play?
Yes, people are moving towards nutrition, health, wellness and overall whatever good for them. I think people are compromising taste but wanting more health and the best example is the Kaada. Nobody had ever thought that Kaada will be something you start your day with, but I believe everybody is doing it right from the person who drives Mercedes to the person riding a cycle start their day with Kaada.
Will you be moving towards green packaging alternatives, keeping in mind environmental concerns?
This is definitely a way forward, in a recent conference I definitely said we have to move more towards Indian green alternatives, bamboos, cotton, jute and I am sure we are all moving towards that, of course recyclable paper and our company is also working towards that.
What kind of research and development goes into your products with regards to flavour development?
Lot of research is going on especially in new health and wellness portfolio products.
How has the lockdown and unlock affect the relationship with your distribution network?
A lot, in fact there is no clarity on lockdown somebody says yes, somebody says no, transporters say yes, district authorities say no, some people say we are open 8am to 11am, some say 11am to 5pm some are alternate markets, so there is a huge disruption, but as I said this is like once in a century we have to live with it.
Product exports have been affected due to Covid-19 restrictions, how have you dealt with it and do you have any plans for tie ups with beverage industry players abroad?
The major problem in exports is supply chain bottlenecks, high cost of freights, the fact that many of our buyers themselves are in Covid restrictions, so, yes, there has been an overall effect in exports, but the good news is that exports are still doing better than domestic business because there are new markets which are opening up for India and I think buyers are looking at choices of alternates to China.
Any plans for launching new products in your Native Haat range?
Overall we have a lot of new product plans but as of now we cannot disclose them, at right moment we would be very happy to talk about those.
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