Manikchand will export Oxyrich to UK

The Manikchand Group, which recently announced an aggressive expansion strategy for its bottled water business, will soon export its 'Oxyrich' brand of bottled water.

The first consignment of bottles will be exported in two months to the UK where the company has inked a deal to distribute the product.

So far, the company had been concentrating only on domestic sales but with the facility expansion in place, it has now decided to include exports in its upcoming strategies. It will export 1,300 case containers of the product by April in prices competitive to the leading brands in the UK like Evian.

Company officials said that as of now penetrating the domestic market was the priority but plans were also on to take the product to other countries depending on the demand and after seeing the market response in the UK.

"Considering that the pricing of Oxyrich is quite similar to the existing players in the UK market, it is expected to be placed well in the market. Also, since it is the only product from India in the bottled water segment to have acquired the ISO 22000:2005 certification and possesses the innovative concept of dissolved oxygen, it should see tremendous growth," said Ajit Jain, CEO, Manikchand Group.

The company is in the process of establishing new plants across the country through the franchisee route and direct acquisition. It has set sights on Ahmedabad, where a bottled water plant through a franchisee with a capacity of around 25 million litres per annum would be established by the end of August 2007.

The other upcoming plants are to be established at Mumbai and Lucknow. The group is also looking at setting up production plants at Jaipur and Chandigarh for which negotiations are on.

Around 13 plants are expected to be functional by 2010.

The market size for bottled water is estimated to be around Rs 1,800 crore and Jain expects a growth of around 70 per cent in the next few years. The company has invested Rs 100 crore so far in the project and is expected to pump in Rs 400-500 crore more in phases.

Jain also confirmed that the company was in negotiations with one Indian and one foreign bottled water company for acquisition.