PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2010

BOTTLING / FILLING 28 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 04/10 www.petpla.net “A bottle of Bisleri, please” Whenever anyone in India orders bottled water there is very strong chance that he or she will say exactly that - “A bottle of Bisleri, please”. With a 60% market share across its brands Bisleri has no serious competitors. But that isn’t enough. For the future the company is targeting an 80 % share, and to do it they have 8 bottling plants of their own and over 50 co-packers and franchisees in India. Service is the key to their busi- ness. Bisleri is growing by 40% year on year. Reducing the bottle weight doesn’t seem to be a good idea in the eyes of Mr Kadeer Khan, Direc- tor Corporate Affairs. A lighter bottle would be too soft and flexible. In par- ticular the roads over which the water is transported demand a sturdy bottle. Then there is the fact that most bottles of water are sold out on the street, which means that they are exposed to direct sunlight for long periods. The refillable 5 ,10 and 20l containers start to take on a yellowish colour after just a couple of cycles. This has been solved by introducing a light green tint to the preforms. The company would very much like to add the green tint to their single trip bottles but unfortu- nately Indian law, for some incompre- hensible reason, forbids the colouring of single trip bottles. Generally for Bisleri colour goes right to the heart of the matter. Until 2006 all labels were blue - and “all” means all water bottles from all suppli- ers! This of course made product dif- ferentiation on the store shelf almost impossible. Bisleri took a course of action which, from a marketing point of view, was double edged. In 2006 they changed their main colour from blue to green, despite the fact that for decades their corporate brand- ing had been blue. Not only were the labels changed to green, but so were all of the buildings, delivery trucks and employee uniforms. Even the furniture is now in the new house colour. Today they can say that the new market Bisleri has concentrated on still water, which is bottled exclusively in PET. from 250ml to 2l the bottles are single trip, and refillables are used for the 5, 10 and 20l sizes. Most fill- ings are of the 1l size. In the North Pearl Drinks supply the required 22g preforms, made from virgin PET and using the weight-saving Alaska neck. For Mr. R. K. Garg, Director Northern India, the quality and availability is crucial, if the price is right too, then he is satisfied. Ten to fifteen years ago the company tried moulding their own preforms but finally decided to stick to their core capability - i.e. manufactur- ing and selling pure and safe water. Alexander Büchler (left) had the opportunity to visit two of the Indian Bisleri plants, together with Vijay Walia (right), Deputy Gen- eral Manager of Pearl Drinks. R.K. Garg (centre). Director Northern India, Bisleri, is proud of the 40% annual growth of Bisleri.