Smooth sail on a steady boat
Making a mark in the Indian packaged food sector isn’t something that consumer startups usually attempt to do. The sector is largely dominated by big corporate brands such as Dabur, PepsiCo and ITC, among others. But Neeraj Kakkar, chief executive officer of Hector Beverages Pvt. Ltd, saw an opportunity in the traditional food and beverages segment.
In 2011, Kakkar and Neeraj Biyani, both former Coca-Cola employees, launched Hector’s first energy drink, Tzinga. “After almost one year of doing Tzinga, we realised that we were keen to drink aam panna more than anything,” Kakkar said last December.
The company first launched two ethnic drinks — aamras and jaljeera under the PaperBoat brand in Bangalore in 2013 -- and later expanded the product to the northern states.
In a year, Paper Boat started selling 1.2 million packs every month. In July 2014, Hector Beverages said its sales had nearly doubled.
By 2015, Hector was valued at $100 million and raised more than $30 million from investors. In April that year, the company tied up with Japanese Ramen noodles maker Indo Nissin for distributing PaperBoat drinks in Tier-II cities and rural markets. Hector sells its beverages on online grocery ordering platforms and e-commerce marketplaces. The brand has presence across cafes, airlines such as Indigo and Jet Airways, and hotels.