Food & beverage major PepsiCo, which has a joint venture called NourishCo with Tata Global Beverages (TGB) to develop and market good-for-you beverages, has indicated that packaged water brand ‘Himalayan’ is still part of the JV despite the annou-ncement by the Tata-Starbucks combine to sell the product at cafes in India.
NourishCo has a brand licensing agreement with the Tata group for marketing the MNC conglomerate’s Himala-yan brand of mineral water. Himalayan competes in India with the likes of Qua from the Narang Group in the mid-market bottled water market, which is roughly Rs 650 crore in size.
Brands in this segment retail at a price point of Rs 25-30 per litre. The mass-market players such as Bisleri, Kinley and Aquafina are part of the Rs 1,750-crore regular bottled water market, where price-points are at Rs 15-16 per litre.
A NourishCo spokesperson clarified that TGB’s arrangement with Starbucks would “simply provide” another retail avenue for the brand. “Himalayan is marketed by NourishCo and will be available at Starbucks also along with other channels,” the official told Business Standard in an email response.
Earlier, John Culver, Starbucks’ president for the Chinese & Asia-Pacific regions, had told this newspaper that the coffee house major’s cafes in India would stock Himalayan packaged water, and Tata Tazo, the premium co-branded tea drink, besides Starbucks coffee, merchandise and food. He had also indicated the prospect of retailing more products from the Tata Global Beverages (TGB) stable, saying it would be considered later at an “appropriate stage”.
R K Krishnakumar, vice-chairman, Tata Global Beverages, had said during the announcement of the 50:50 JV with Starbucks on Monday that he saw no blurring of lines between the two JVs.
“The JV with Pepsi looks at products in bottled form, while the JV with Starbucks is coffee-centric,” he said.
NourishCo’s mandate excludes tea, so there is no question of an overlap, TGB executives had indicated then.
In the last one year since getting operational, NourishCo, which is a 50:50 JV between TGB and PepsiCo, has test-marketed a lemon-flavoured energy drink called Lehar Gluco Plus in Maharashtra. Plans are afoot to roll this out across markets in India in the coming months.
The company is also looking at launching more products, which the NourishCo spokesperson declined to indicate at this stage.
The Lehar Gluco Plus drink is priced at Rs 5 for a 200 ml pack. To make it affordable, NourishCo packaged the drink in plastic cups with a tight seal.
The product has been targeted at bottom-of-the pyramid customers as a rehydration solution.
