BIRA

Bira91 is a craft beer brand manufactured by B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd. It was

launched in 2015. The company's first brewery unit was located in Flanders region
of Belgium where a craft distillery was used to contract manufacture the beer with
ingredients from France, Belgium, Himalayas and Bavarian Farms and the beer
was imported to India. After initial success, the company thereafter began
manufacturing the beer in India with the same ingredients. Made
from wheat, barley and hops, the beer is available in draft, 330ml, 650ml bottles
and 500ml cans. Bira91 raises $10 million in debt funding, to ramp up output. The
company is expected to use the proceeds to ramp up its production capacity to
about 1.7 million cases, up from its current 400,000 cases, with a significant
amount also to go towards brand building.

B9 Beverages Pvt Ltd was founded by Ankur Jain, an entrepreneur who moved
from India to the United States in 1998. Jain completed his degree in Computer
Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He briefly worked
with Motorola before starting his first venture in Healthcare Revenue Management
in New York which was later sold to an undisclosed healthcare provider network in
2007.
Jain moved back to India and started his first beer venture in 2008; which was
importing traditional craft beers from Europe and US to India. B9 Beverages
launched Bira91 beer in early 2015.
rand building and distribution, according to Jain, are the two key factors in making
Bira91 a great success in a market which has been led by behemoths. As we meet
Jain on a chilly winter morning and discuss issues like seasonality that a beer
entrepreneur would face, Jain pours the recently launched Stout, which has a
heavier taste and tends to sell more during winters. The office not only has the
Bira91 tap but a sales ticker running across the office, which shows how much the
brand has done the previous week and how much more remains to be achieved in
terms of sales, keeping the company thirsty for more.
it’s a combination of seasoned professionals and younger team which calls the
shots. With offices across Delhi, Bombay, Bengaluru and Goa, the team size has
increased to 550. The next challenge for Bira is to keep it fresh while brewing it in
bigger quantities

“It’s incredibly tough to make beers at large scale consistently. There is a lot of
science and supply chain planning involved. You have to factor in a lot of external
factors. It’s something large beer companies are chasing to achieve.” Bira 91 hired
a full team in 2018 which specializes in areas of freshness.

Bira 91 now has four active breweries with a production capacity of 400,000 cases
per month. The company closed 2019 at $100 million in revenue. With a market
share close to two-and-a-half per cent of the overall beer market and 10 per cent of
the premium segment, Bira 91 is all set to stay nimble and agile. Distribution is key
to how consumers discover the brand because the way they find your beer is a big
part of the opinion they form. Bira 91 seems to have nailed it. On distribution of
the brand, Jain says, “We progressively started expanding into retail shops. Now
we are building presence across channels where beer is sold as we aspire to be
available in all those formats. We sell at airports. We are talking to a few partners
for in-flight services too.” Starting 2019 with 30 odd cities, the team further scaled
it up to 225 cities. Last year saw Bira 91 growing at 100% y-o-y and doubling up
the volumes. While the slowdown as seen negative or flat growth for others, Bira
91 has been able to increase revenues by grabbing market share of other players.
Bira 91 has been one of those players which has expanded not just in India but also
globally. Talking about international expansion, Jain says, “With presence in nine
countries now, we expect to be in 16 by the end of this fiscal year.” Bira is
currently being exported to the US, the UK, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
With increasing popularity of Indian food internationally, people are willing to pair
it with an Indian beer. In 2018, Bira 91 signed the most coveted ICC deal where it
saw massive marketing with the first tournament last summer. Since the freshest
beer comes from the taps at your local brewery, Bira is now exploring to venture
into Bira 91 taps coming in Bengaluru this year to help them innovate and brew
fresh small batches.

Sharing his path to profitability, Jain says, “We are profitable in terms of unit
economics. Our gross margin is two times that of the industry. At the corporate
level, we will be profitable by FY2022. Already being the most funded FMCG
start-ups in the country, Bira will be raising its Series C round of funding this year
in May. Talking about the role played by investors, Jain says, “Investors have been
tremendously helpful in challenging times in the last 3-4 years. They helped
us build the team, have corporate governance and structures around.” As a brand
once it found the right connect with its audience, Bira 91 started selling
merchandise across its website making sure the consumers remember the brand
even after the drink. Though Bira’s Merchandise business is fairly small right now,
Jain aspires to make it 3-4 per cent of its contribution to overall business. With
four production facilities across Mysore, Kovur (Andhra Pradesh), Nagpur and
Indore, Bira 91 aims to expand its revenue almost 10 times from where it is today.
In terms of states, Karnataka generates the highest revenue while Delhi continues
to top the chart across cities.

Bira 91’s journey wouldn’t be complete without the mention of Ankeeta Pawa, the
founder’s wife. Besides being a part of the marketing team, she also helps Jain in
getting a perspective from the employee’s side. Jain adds, “When you are leading
an organization, you have blinders on. The goal is the most important aspect. You
don’t feel the discomfort an employee may be facing in achieving those goals. She
is able to connect with them at a different level.”

As Ankur’s thirst continues to grow, he says, “We are very self critical as an
organization and I like that. We are always trying to find better ways of doing
things that we do. Every day, I feel what really sort of gives me a kick is the
feeling: can we do better 2X or 3X? Our aim is to become the beer of choice for
this generation.” Commenting on various new players entering the market, Jain is
quick to mention, “This is a long game where not the months, but the years
matter.” The highest funded FMCG start-up Bira 91 continues to find its cult by
building brand memorability, physical availability and range. For this start-up,
there is no consumption slowdown. Jain doesn’t operate like a typical liquor
maker; he operates like a beverages business operator. So adding a flavour like
coffee to stout wasn’t something only he would have thought of. Only a beverage
start-up could think on those lines. If you like to pair your beer with food, pull a
chair and drink in the tale of Bira. All we can conclude is the craft beer craze is not
fizzing out any soon. So keep brewing it fresh!
 In a start-up pitch, it’s all related to challenges you are trying to solve as a
company. In early stage you are predicting that this product will be liked by the
consumer. There will be a product market fit. That’s when you raise capital.
Today, the challenge is: will we be able to scale it up from where it is today to say
3X in next 3-4 years? That’s a very different problem to solve. Conversation with
investors will typically be around what are the challenges that are expected to
come in between - from where you are and where you want to be in the next three
years. We have open conversation with investors in good and bad times. Pressure
only comes when there is a big misalignment. And they happen if you are not
talking to investors and vice versa.

 Bira 91 will be the exclusive beer to be poured at all upcoming ICC events
 The association with ICC has given the brand a much-needed push to engage
with the Indian diaspora at large

The recently concluded Cricket World Cup in England and Wales may not have
had the fairytale ending for the Indian team as millions of fans would have
expected. However, for indigenous craft beer brand Bira 91, the recent tournament
emerged as its biggest ever advertising platform as it forays into the UK market.
Thanks to its five-year global sponsorship deal with the International Cricket
Council (ICC), the beer brand looks to expand its global footprint with other
upcoming fixtures.

In a country where advertising alcoholic beverages is banned, the B9 Beverages

Pvt. Ltd-owned Bira 91 mostly relied on word-of-mouth promotion of its light,
flavour-focused beer since its launch in 2015. After becoming a hit among India’s
young urban consumers, the Delhi-based brand found itself pitted against the likes
of Chhattisgarh-based Simba, Mumbai-based White Owl and Gurugram-based
White Rhino, who have entered the niche market of craft beer over the past few
years, offering their products at the same price point ( ₹110-155 for 330 ml pints)
as Bira 91.
Despite the domestic market saturation, Bira 91 (the 91 referring to India’s
international phone code) has not lost sight of its ambitions to “become the first
global brand of craft beer." According to Bira 91 founder and CEO, Ankur Jain,
the association with ICC has given the brand a much-needed push to engage with
the Indian diaspora at large (both domestic and abroad).

Sponsoring the tournament ensured that the “Indian-at-heart" Bira 91 was the first
modern craft beer that was served at traditional venues cricket grounds like the
Oval or Lord’s. It has already launched two of its variants-- a repackaged Bira 91
Blonde lager and the wheat-based Bira 91 White ale--in the UK market with this
year’s World Cup. Priced at £2.69 per 330 ml bottle, it is currently available for
online purchase at beerhawk.co.uk, and is set to appear in local pubs and
restaurants in the coming weeks.

Why join hands with ICC? “We feel both cricket and beer defines the Indian
cultural identity. When you marry the two, it becomes a natural partnership," said
Jain. “Both of these are undergoing a generational shift. We want to define what
beer means for this generation of Indian consumers both in India and abroad," said
Jain during the India-New Zealand semi final match in Manchester on 10 July.

Another vantage point for Bira 91 will be that it will also be the exclusive beer to
be poured at all upcoming ICC events, including the T20 World Cup 2020 (men’s
and women’s) in Australia, a market the brand is looking to become active in by
next year. Apart from UK, Bira 91 has already forayed into the US (New York,
New Jersey, Philadelphia and Boston), Singapore, Nepal, Dubai and Bahrain. It is
planning to launch its products next in Vietnam in August, followed by Hong
Kong and Australia, the company confirmed.

For the Australia launch next year, Jain said that women consumers would be a
major target. “Beer consumption is being increasingly defined by females, who are
willing to try light beer with fresh ingredients and taste. To that effect, the T20
women’s world cup in February-March is going to be an exciting platform where
we may launch a couple of products exclusively for women," said Jain.
Despite its ouster from the tournament, India still remains the biggest market for
cricket. Perhaps this is why the world cup this year saw 6 out of the 20 commercial
partners of the ICC come from India---MRF Tyres, Bira 91, Royal Stag, digital
fantasy sports platform Dream11, sports business firm Gaames and Britannia
Industries. “Associating with a new and exciting brand such as Bira 91 is helping
ICC connect with cricket fans all over the world," Campbell Jamieson, General
Manager-Commerical, ICC told Mint. “This is an opportunity for both
organizations to collaborate and achieve their common objectives which is to
contribute to the growth of cricket and Bira 91 as a brand."

Ahead of its UK launch, Bira 91 ran a number of innovative promotional

campaigns related to the world cup. Along with holding official screenings across
Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru. Pune and Hyderabad, the brand also saw an increased
visual presence at the stadiums. The most notable of them was the Bira 91
"experiential" pop-up stores set up outside the match venues, which was thronged
by NRI spectators-- one of its major targets in global markets.

It also ran aggressive campaigns focused on "experiencing" the world cup on social
media a few weeks before the World Cup started, including organizing contests for
consumers to win tickets for a match and get their pictures taken with the trophy.
Bira 91 hired influencers to attend key matches and share their experience on
social media handles. It is also banking on associations with UK artists of Indian
origin to spread the word in a highly competitive market.

Bira 91 currently offers 7 variants--Bira White Lager, White Ale, Strong Ale,
Blonde lager, Indian Pale Ale, Boom strong and Boom classic. The beer brand is
planning to offer at least 8 new variants in India by the end of the year.

“We are currently attempting to ensure that the UK business is sustainable for us
over a 10-year period even though the growth may be slightly lower," said Jain,
adding that Bira 91 has ramped up its production capacities five-fold to 2 million
cases per month from 350,000 barrels a month in the beginning of the year to meet
targets. It currently operates three breweries in Indore, Nagpur and Kovvur and
exports 7% of its production to active international markets. It is all set to launch a
fourth brewery in Karnataka next month.