Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Section- I
Enroll. No.- 15BSP100
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Cerana is a start up with the mission to bring a craft beer
revolution in India. It is an original Indian handcrafted Beer, not
made in India nor does it have Indian barley or wheat but
imagined in India, Cerana’s key brands include Bira 91 White (a
low bitterness wheat beer) and Bira 91 Blonde (an extra hoppy
craft lager) available in draft and bottle formats.
Cerana also owns and operates the country’s first and largest draft
beer dispense network in restaurants and bars across the
country.In addition to its own brands, Cerana also imports and
distributes a portfolio covering major beer styles and more than
twenty brands, including the legendary names of the specialty
beer world such as the Belgian Blonde Ale of Duvel and Trappist
Beers of Chimay.
Cerana was founded by Ankur Jain, an entrepreneur and
engineer.Ankur Jain, CEO of Bira 91, graduated with a
Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Illinois
Institute of Technology, Chicago, in 2002. In 2008, he founded
Cerana Beverages Pvt. Ltd, which started as an importer of exotic
brews, and in May last year soft-launched Bira 91.
Tanmoy Mukherjee, chief marketing officer, Cerana, former
marketing head of Lavazza Coffee.
Anuj Krishan, former director with UBS Investment Bank,
London and an alumnus of IIT Bombay, as Chief Operating
Officer, as part of the expansion plans.
Anshul Agarwal, Vice President-operations in the leadership
team, manufactured and exported garments for nearly five years.
Cetrana has six partners who own about 75% of the company (the
remaining stake is with a bunch of individual private investors).
The company employs 50 people, of whom 25 have been added
in the past 45 days.
By October-November, Bira 91 will be produced in India,
initially with two contract manufacturers—one each in
Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
1)MARKET SUMMARY:
The logo of Bira 91 is a reverse B, which Jain says shows “a
spirit of rebellion against the conventional”.Bira 91 was
“imagined in India” and made in Belgium with French and
Belgian malts, hops from Himachal Pradesh, and water from a
source near the contract bottling facility in Delhi.
2)MARKET NEEDS:
“Hand-Crafted Beer, Imagined in India, with the effect of
unleashing your innerself –that fun, friendly, smart & slightly
odd creature that is inside all of us. The aim was to fill the gap in
the market for a trendy, unorthodox, fun and smart brand of beer
that could be positioned between Indian brands and the
expensive imported beers. The focus was on taste and
experience in a market that is dominated by strong beers,” says
Jain.
3)MARKET TRENDS:
“What is great beer made of? Yes, the most pristine, earthy
water, the sturdiest & choicest malted barley & wheat, flavored
with a blast from the most delicate hops and restless, manic
yeast. But also the secret ingredients of spirit, mystery,
mythology, passion, and a turbulent chaos, full of vitality and
energy. And, India has these secret ingredients in
abundance”says Jain. Bira 91 is a craft beer, the first that has
been conceived of by an Indian company. The big difference in
Bira 91 White comes when the libation first touches the tongue.
It is sweeter and markedly more acerbic, or citrusy, than the
normal beer. The bigger surprise is in the lack of bitterness that
usually marks beer.
5)COMPETITION:
It is a mild variety of beer, much milder (with alcohol content
below 5%) than other beers in the Indian market dominated by
strong beers including Kingfisher, Kalyani Black Label,
Carlsberg Elephant, Budweiser Magnum and Miller ACE.
MARKETING STRATEGY:
1)MISSION:
Jain’s target is to reach sales of one million cases a year by the
end of 2015 (up from 10,000 cases a month in the Delhi market
now), his ambition fuelled by the response to Bira 91 in Delhi
and Bengaluru.
2)MARKETING OBJECTIVE:
The growth has been fast, much faster than the company could
have imagined. The aim now is to be among the top three in
every market that we will be present in by the end of this year.
The company wants to continue with the two variants and add
one more by the end of the year and eventually brew the beer in
India. To scale up,the company has decided to lower prices from
Rs.150 a pint to Rs.100 over the next few month.
FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES:
If price isn’t a barrier to growth, why does the company plan to
lower it? The company could have worked out a lower price.
But taxation is something that they can’t control.Tax for beer
differs from state to state, ranging from 25% in Goa to 65% in
Maharashtra.
Cerana Beverages now generates $1.5 million a month—about
95% from Bira 91 and the remaining from imports of other
brands.
To scale up. Jain is in talks with private equity investors and
venture capitalists for $10 million in Series A funding, which is
expected to be closed in the next couple of months. “This would
be deployed over the next 12 months from the time the company
raises the funds.