Manpasand eyes urban markets with'Fruits Up'

After registering presence in semi-urban and rural markets with Mango Sip, Vadodara-based Manpasand Beverages is now looking to tap urban markets with its carbonated fruit drink Fruits-Up. The soft drinks player has already begun launching the product in metros like Mumbai, followed by other major cities across the country.

"The distribution model for Mango Sip is an old one. It was focused more towards rural and semi-urban markets. But with Fruits Up, we intend to create a whole new category of premium carbonated fruit drink and are targeting major class one cities including metros," says Dhirendra Singh, chairman and managing director of Manpasand Beverages Ltd.

Established in April, 1998, the company has a basket of 50 product variants including its flagship brand Mango Sip, the fourth largest mango drink brand in India. Now Manpasand is aiming new high with launch of its new products Fruits Up and ORS. After signing Sunny Deol as its brand ambassador in the year 2014, Manpasand Beverages has recently signed up Mary Kom as its brand ambassador for Manpasand ORS.

Singh believes there was a gap in the current fruit drink or juice market which is mainly divided into three segments.

"The highest selling segment is the fruit drink segment where minimum fruit content has to be around 10-15 per cent. This is followed by a more premium segment of fruit nectar segment where the minimum fruit content is more than 22 per cent. And finally the most premium segment is fruit juice where minimum fruit content has to be around 85 per cent. We realised that there was a big price and segment gap between fruit drink and fruit nectar segment which we intend to create through Fruits Up," says Singh.

At a minimum fruit content of 17 per cent, Fruits Up looks to offer a healthy fruit drink and comes in three flavours including orange, grape and lemon.

Moreover, in this premium carbonated fruit drink category, Manpasand intends to tap the huge demand for healthy carbonated drinks. "A healthy substitute to a carbonated drink is a carbonated fruit drink where the fruit content is around at least 17 per cent. In this segment, we don't foresee any direct competition to Fruits Up and will try to bring in as many healthy products in this segment as possible," Singh adds.

According to Singh, the growing middle income group (MIG) in India also pushes for a new segment.

In terms of supply, Manpasand Beverages is looking to push for the same by expanding the manufacturing capacity from current 65000 boxes of 27 tetra packs or 24 bottles per day to 125,000 boxes per day in near future. Manpasand Beverages' brands are available in over 20 states across the country and sold through more than 200,000 retailers, which is in turn serviced by over 2,000 distributors and 200-plus super stockists.

Meanwhile, to fund the expansion, the company has also filed a DRHP and is planning a Rs 400 crore initial public offering (IPO) this year. It needs to be mentioned here that in 2011, SAIF Partners India had invested $10 million in Manpasand Beverages for a minority stake.