With a believe that Tata Group "will nurture and take care of it even better'', 82-year-old Ramesh J Chauhan will sell his packaged water company Bisleri to Tata Consumer for about Rs 6,000-7,000 crore.
According to the reports by ET, Chauhan, who has been in indifferent health in recent times, told the publication that the current management will continue for two years as part of the deal.
Chauhan said the Bisleri brand's turnover for FY23 is estimated at Rs 2,500 crore with profit at Rs 220 crore. Available numbers for the year ended March 2021, which was marked by Covid, shows income from sales at Rs 1,181 .7 crore and profit of Rs 95 crore, according to business intelligence platform Tofler, compared with revenue of Rs 1,472 crore and profit of Rs 100 crore for the year ended March 2020.
The mineral drinking water market size of packaged drinking water is around Rs 20,000 crore. Bisleri is the market leader for bottled water with a market share of 32 per cent.
Bisleri was originally an Italian brand that set up shop in India in Mumbai in 1965. The Chauhans acquired it in 1969. The company has 122 operational plants (13 of them owned) and a network of 4,500 distributors and 5,000 trucks across India and neighbouring countries.