Tata Consumer Products is a part of the Tata Group conglomerate and has a presence in multiple sectors, including food and beverage, personal care, and home care. The company entered the FMCG space in 2019 after Tata Global Beverages merged with consumer goods company Tata Chemicals. The merger aimed to create a larger consumer goods entity with a diversified product portfolio, stronger distribution network, and increased scale.
The decision to abandon the Bisleri acquisition plans and focus on their own mineral water brands, such as Tata Copper+ and Himalayan, could be a strategic move for Tata Consumer Products. With the growing demand for healthier beverage options, particularly mineral water, the company could leverage its existing brands to capture a larger share of the market. By investing heavily in their own mineral water brands, Tata Consumer Products could increase brand awareness, improve product quality and expand their distribution reach.
Sunil D’Souza, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consumer Products,said, “Acquiring Bisleri would have fast-forwarded our plans by three years, but this plan was just a small puzzle in our big F&B (food and beverages) puzzle box. We will now back our own brands Tata Copper+, Tata Gluco+ and Himalayan mineral water with the strong resources we have at our disposal.”
“Bisleri is a fantastic brand and would have changed the growth trajectory for Tata Consumer, but now that plan is done and dusted.”
“We had put on hold some investment decisions in our RTD (ready to drink) business. However, we have expanded our manufacturing and distribution footprint to 70% of the market and will now focus on expanding to the rest.”
“We have significantly increased distribution to reach 3.6 million and raised spends on brands while parallelly ramping up innovation,” D’Souza said. “Our new product launches now are approximately 2.5 times compared to 2020, with dedicated R&D centres in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Sri City. Another major ramp-up in digital capabilities will happen soon.”
However, the FMCG market in India is highly competitive, with well-established players such as Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Britannia, and ITC dominating the industry. Tata Consumer Products will have to innovate and differentiate its products to capture consumer attention and market share. With an ambitious mandate to expand its product portfolio and distribution quickly, Tata Consumer Products will have to focus on innovation, customer engagement, and building strong brand equity to succeed in this competitive market.