?There is always more that we can do?

Consummate marketeer, brand builder, water king?. Ramesh Chauhan needs no introduction.

Bisleri International chairman?s presence looms large in the cut-throat world of packaged drinking water in India. Such is the legacy of the man. Quite an achievement really, given the fact that he?s been standing tall now for over 38 years. It speaks volumes about the man. Chauhan is a survivor, taking both personal tragedy and professional loss, with ?lan. As a close colleague says, ?He is always smiling. It?s amazing how he manages to keep going and pushing himself really. He?s absolutely passionate about his work.?

That?s true. Sixty-seven years and going strong, Chauhan is not ready to retire yet. That is something he is not thinking about at all. ?I have much to do,? he says. With the packaged water business in India looking up, Bisleri is on a growth track. Chauhan, in fact, has his task cut out: export more and tap the untapped areas in the domestic market. ?There is always more that we can do,? he says.

With newer rivals such as the Tatas, who recently acquired New Delhi-based Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd, stepping into the fray, the need to protect market share is not lost on Chauhan. His office is replete with bottles of different shapes and sizes. These are not only Bisleri bottles, but also allied brands that sit comfortably in his wall cabinet behind his desk. Says Chauhan; ?Every bottle tells a story. The shape, size, there is so much you can learn from it.?

If storing bottles is a passion, so is playing tennis. Chauhan never fails to make it to the Cricket Club of India lawns in downtown Mumbai for a game of tennis. That is something he thoroughly enjoys. It also invigorates him to take on new challenges. ?Oh! It?s a fantastic sport,? he says. ?I play table tennis sometimes, when I see a table or go on holidays. But lawn tennis is what I play more now. I used to play squash earlier, but I developed a problem in my knees. Tennis is better. It is an outdoor sport, less strenuous, quite wholesome. It improves your coordination, helps build stamina and energy. I feel good after a game of tennis,? says the man, the fourth among seven siblings, the first three of whom are no more.

For an avid sportsman like Chauhan, the playground has actually been his classroom. Right through his boarding school days in Panchgani and Gwalior, Chauhan was an active sportsman, enjoying every game from table tennis to cricket. Discipline, rigour, foresight?all of them acquired there?have come in very handy in his protracted marketing wars with Coca-Cola, which has brand Kinley, and Pepsi, which has Aquafina.

He still continues to fight them, but there is no sense of worry at all. ?Why should I worry? There have always been brands against whom we have been competing. But the real competition, if you ask me, is with ourselves. To achieve what we have set out to do. I don?t spend sleepless nights worrying about anything. You could call it a manufacturing defect, but I can?t sit up late into the nights. I could never sit up and do late-night study during my student days. Even today I prefer being left alone at 10.00 pm.?

A graduate in mechanical engineering and business management from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA, Chauhan began as any other scion of a business family would?with a major responsibility on hand. That was in 1962 and Chauhan had the task of setting up a factory in Mumbai. Soon enough, he began managing the soft drinks business that his father Jayantilal had taken over following a family split in 1961.

It wasn?t easy by any stretch of imagination because consuming colas was largely a western habit that the Chauhans hoped Indians would pick up. It was a risk the undivided Chauhan family had taken years ago when they got into the soft drinks business in addition to sweets and biscuits, but it was Jayantilal and his sons?Madhukar, Ramesh and Prakash?who pushed the agenda forward once the family split. Madhukar passed away tragically in 1964, so the responsibility of running the business fell on the young shoulders of Ramesh and Prakash. There was no looking back ?Rhimjhim and Kismat were launched in the late 1960s, Limca in 1971, Thums-Up in 1972-73 and Maaza in 1976. Goldspot was already around since the early 1950s. Citra was also added to the portfolio subsequently. So here was a clever mix of soft drinks.

But Bisleri was a different ball game altogether. It was not part of the family business, but was acquired from Italian Felice Bisleri in 1969. ?We were not actually looking at mineral water at that time,? says Chauhan. ?Bisleri had tried selling the concept here in India, but it didn?t quite work. We were a soft drinks company wanting a soda in our portfolio. So we used the Bisleri brand to actually launch a soda,? says Chauhan.

What began as a humble effort to plug a yawning gap in the company?s product portfolio soon turned out to be a fantastic business opportunity. ?We produced Bisleri soda for a number of years. Bisleri mineral water, on the other hand, wasn?t getting that kind of attention. It was really in the 1980s, when we switched to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bottles from glass bottles that the bottled water category started looking up for us. With PET bottles later, the longevity of the product improved dramatically. All of this did marvels to the brand,? says Chauhan.

By his own admission, however, it was the sale of the franchise rights of his soft drinks to Coca-Cola in 1993 that allowed Chauhan to fully devote his attention to Bisleri mineral water. ?I was able to concentrate on the brand,? he says. ?I don?t regret parting with the soft drinks business at all. They were great brands, no doubt. But in hindsight, I think it was the right move, given the climate that prevails today. Cola consumption is on the decline. People are switching over to healthier options, and packaged drinking water is high on their priority list.

Frankly, it?s better to be on the winning side,? he says.

Rightly so. With the focus on his water brand, Chauhan introduced a half-litre bottle at a price point of Rs 5. This was followed by a 1.2-litre pack a few years later. All of this in addition to the 1-litre pack, which was anyways around. Quite clearly, Chauhan was targeting different consumers at various price points and pack sizes. His efforts didn?t stop at that. Chauhan forayed into the bulk segment, followed it up with improvements in the product. In fact, his efforts at fine-tuning the product are still on. Last year, the brand underwent a makeover, doing away with the standard blue colour for a sparkling green, adopting a round shape to the conical and hexagonal one that was the brand?s hallmark since the 1960s. The company also introduced a new variant in natural mountain water.

All this change implies that Chauhan has to have a firm finger on the pulse of the consumer. And this he does. The sexagenarian spends a good amount of time at his desk everyday, meeting people, strategising, thinking. ?We are going back to the hexagonal-shaped bottle for exports,? he says. ?You can see the packaging through the water as the bottle turns around.?

In his spare time, Chauhan enjoys being with his family, especially, his daughter Jayanthi. Some time is also devoted to his pet passion photography. ?I see life through a bottle everyday. Sometimes, it?s worth seeing life through a lens, too.?