11th Jan,2023
Bira 91’s founder /maker Ankur Jain returned to India in 2007 just after a healthcare startup in New York. He at first began importing a few beers to get a hold in the beer market, without having knowledge of Alcohol Business. In 2014, Ankur started his own brand in the beer market to hit the young generation of India with key focus areas – taste, alcohol percentage, flavor, calories & quality. And, he started B9 Beverages with products named as Bira 91.
Bira 91, where the 91 stands for India’s Country Code, is right now easily available over 15 urban areas. B9 Beverages is concentrating on the premium beer space and will have presence in 8 more urban communities this quarter.
BIRA 91: India’s Most Popular Beer Startup
A refreshingly modern beer brand, Imagined in India, Bira 91 aspires to bring flavorful beers to the new world. As one of the fastest growing brands in the world, Bira 91 has built a diverse portfolio of award-winning beers, one for every occasion, and aims to drive the global shift in beer towards more color and flavor.
Bira 91 is now enjoyed in over 500 towns and cities spread across 15 countries and brews its beers across five breweries in India. Bira 91 has its flagship taproom in Bangalore, where it releases one new experimental beer every week, paired with its curry-shop menu.
Bira 91 also offers branded merchandise across categories such as glassware, apparel and gifts, to make every day a lot more playful. Established in 2015, Bira 91 is driven by a dynamic team of over 600+ passionate beer lovers and is backed by Sequoia Capital India, Sofina of Belgium and Kirin Holding of Japan.
BIRA healthier than Milk
Bira 91, just launched one of the low calorie beers to be presented in the Indian market (90 calories for a 330 ml bottle) named as Bira Light Beer. Bira Light is only the lowest calorie option for any alcoholic drink in the bar. It is lower than a glass of champagne, much lower than Breezers, wine, or mixed drinks. Hell, it’s even lower than a glass of drain or squeezed orange!
BIRA 91 readies new launches after Choppy year for Beer Companies
B9 Beverages, that makes the Bira 91 brand of beer in India, is set to launch a slew of new beers in the market apart from the re-launch of some of its existing variants, as competition in the craft brews space picks pace. Some of the launches planned last year were delayed due to covid-19 led disruptions.
“We will launch more products this fiscal than we did in the last three-to-four years combined. There is a very strong product innovation pipeline that we have, and this is not just Taproom but in actual cans and bottles for wider distribution,” said Ankur Jain, founder and CEO, B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd. For B9, strong beers, which form the belly of the beer market in India, account for over 55-60% of its volumes.
Bira 91 beers have found resonance among India’s younger tipplers. However, India’s beer market is dominated by United Breweries that sells the Kingfisher brand of beer, apart from top global beer makers such as Anheuser-Busch InBev and Carlsberg. Even though beer accounts for about 12% of alcohol consumed in India, young, urban consumers are experimenting with new beers and flavors.
BIRA Financials: Bira 91 Strengthens Core Leadership Team
The company expects to expand its production footprint five-fold to 2,000,000 barrels before summer of 2019 from the current capacity of 350,000 barrels.
For the year ended March 2019, the company reported total revenue of Rs 188.3 crores, according to data sourced from Tofler. The losses stood at Rs135 crore.
Last year, it expanded its reach to 21 states and union territories in the country. “We will be adding three to four more states in the upcoming quarter,” he said. At the end of 2019—Bira’s beer was available in 15-16 states. “We now have over 500 towns and cities in the country. And present in 25,000 to 27,000 outlets,” he said.
Analysts tracking the sector, however, said such beers are too niche for a mass-market like India. “Craft beers are still very niche and cannot get the scale that and work well for promoting a beer culture. Plus, the price points vary too,” said Karan Taurani at Elara Securities. “Even the larger players are chasing the premium category, but the numbers show it is a small portfolio of the market.”
BIRA Promoters and Management
Bira 91, one of the fastest growing beer brands, has announced three key appointments to its executive leadership team. Vinaya Jain, ex-CFO of General Motors India joins the company as the CFO and Sr. Vice President – Finance and will lead the global finance function of the company. Sudhir Jain, ex-Senior Director, Supply Chain, Molson Coors India will lead the company’s manufacturing operations. Thomas Hartman, an ex-Global Innovation Brewer for Anheuser Busch InBev’s New York-based ZX Ventures, will join the company as Vice President – Innovation Brewing.
Cheers! For Bira 91
Till last year, the organization had a manufacturing unit in Belgium and now Jain has moved the procedure to their production unit in Indore. He is likewise anticipating another in Nagpur as well. Today we can view Bira 91 as the Smart Brand of Beer.
With the global craft beer market projected to reach over $502B by 2025, and the market expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period due to the rising demand for craft beers- Bira 91’s growth comes at an opportune time to corner a rising market and reach emerging consumers.
Let’s Cheers together for Bira 91!
Cheers!! 🍻🍻