Eyeing a turnover of Rs 700 crore in the next five years, NourishCo — a joint venture between Tata Global Beverages and PepsiCo India — has said that it will expand its product portfolio of healthy products rapidly.
The company, which today launched Tata Water Plus — a nutrient-rich packaged water here, said a new variant of the product will hit the market in the next 6-7 months.
“We expect that by 2016, the joint venture’s turnover would touch Rs 700 crore with our product portfolio, which will be enhanced by then,” Tata Global Beverages Vice-Chairman, Mr R.K. Krishna Kumar, told reporters here.
It is expected that in the next 18-24 months a whole variety of healthy products would be coming into the market from NourishCo, he added.
With the launch of Tata Water Plus, NourishCo has now a portfolio of three products including — Tata Gluco Plus (a glucose-based, lemon flavoured drink) and Himalayan Natural Mineral water.
He said the joint venture has invested around Rs 50 crore in the new product and going forward more investments will be made into product development to keep in sync with market growth.
Tata Water Plus, which has been priced at Rs 16 per 750 ml pet bottle, has been launched in Tamil Nadu market initially and would be launched in other parts of the country in a phased manner.
Commenting on the new product, PepsiCo India Region Chairman and CEO, Mr Manu Anand, said: “This unique offering by NourishCo is for everybody, developed keeping in mind the nutritional gaps in an average Indian’s diet.”
NourishCo, which has outsourced the production of the new product to a company in Chennai, will follow the same process all over the country.
“We plan to cover the entire country, including the far flung areas in next three years,” Mr Kumar said.
On the branding of future products, he said that there were “no hard and fast rules” and the joint venture would not follow any set pattern.
In 2010, PepsiCo and Tata Global Beverages had announced forming a 50:50 joint venture to cater to the non-carbonated ready-to-drink beverages segment and focus on health and enhanced wellness.
While Tata Gluco Plus is the first product developed by the joint venture, NourishCo had entered into a brand licensing and a manufacturing agreement with the Tatas for marketing the latter’s Himalayan brand of mineral water.