Bira disrupted the premium beer market with its range of offerings and within a short span of time, the brand has become a household name. Now, with their latest offering, Bira Boom, the brand plans to enter the mass beer market to compete with others like Kingfisher and Carlsberg. There will be two different variants of Boom that will be priced within the ranges of 130 – 185 INR for 650 ml. Boom will also have an offering that falls under the extra-strong segment, which holds 80% of the beer market in India.
According to Ankur Jain, the founder and CEO of B-9 Beverages, “Boom is our first mass-market brand, and the biggest product launch for us in two years,” He also said that “It will compete against Kingfisher Strong and Tuborg Strong,” Furthermore, he feels that this move is driven less by competition and will disrupt this segment because others have not yet realized that consumers are looking for different flavors. Boom will bridge that gap.
So far, Bira has been operating within the premium segment of beers, which only makes up 10% of the market share. Boom will enter the mass space with its more affordable pricing and strong variants, allowing Bira to expand its consumer base and increase market share. Bira has already proved to be very successful in its space. It generated a revenue of Rs. 35 Crore in 2017, which increased exponentially to 165 Crore INR in just a year!
Bira received funding of $50 Million in May 2018. As a result, its overall funding increased to 100 Million USD. At its third round of funding, the brand was valued at $210 Million by Sofina, which is a Belgian led investment firm that has its fingers in a bunch of Indian startups like Flipkart, Practo and Byju’s. Additionally, it is important to note that the global market for crafts beer is expected to reach a market size of 500 Billion USD by 2025.
Currently, Bira has a production capacity of 350,000 barrels and they are planning to increase this to 2 million within 2 months. They are also planning to open two more new breweries, which will increase their overall reach to 17 states in India.
Speaking about this planned growth, Ankur Jain seemed optimistic. He said “Heady days are ahead, and it looks like a promising summer,”
