Fresca Juices to raise ₹100 cr to become a national brand

Fruit drink brand Fresca, part of Shri Bankey Behari Foods, is aiming to become a pan-India player in the next two years. To fund this expansion, the company plans to raise ₹100 crore through private equity players.

Akhil Gupta, Managing Director, Shri Bankey Behari Foods, said: “We have established a strong distribution footprint across North India. We next need to invest in making Fresca, a national player, and plan to take it to the western and southern region.”

Gupta said the company is already in talks with two private equity players to raise funds. “We need to make investments of about ₹100 crore in the next two years and could raise these funds in phases. We may raise funds of about ₹50-60 crore by the end of this fiscal year and raise balance at a higher valuation the next year,” he added.

Besides, ramping up distribution for the brand across the country, these funds will also be used to set up new manufacturing units. The company has two manufacturing units at Sonepat, Haryana and Noida, UP, besides a contract manufacturing agreement with a unit at Ranchi, Jharkhand for brand Fresca.

“We are looking to set up at least three more manufacturing units in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka,” Gupta said.

Fresca Juices is currently available in 10 flavours. Gupta said that the litchi flavour has become one of the most popular flavours and contributes nearly 30 per cent to the overall sales. On the cards is addition of new variants such as Jamun and Falsa juices which will be priced at a premium. The company is also keen to foray in the carbonated juice segment and working on fizzy lemonade and fizzy green mango juice drinks.

“Fresca Juices has been growing at 100 per cent year-on-year and we hope to close 2016-17 at ₹80-100 crore,” Gupta said. The brand clocked revenues of about ₹40 crore in the last fiscal.

The company has recently introduced the ₹10-pack and believes will give a huge boost to sales.

“We also see opportunities to export and negotiating to sell in markets such as Dubai and the US . We have a strong institutional sales channels and supply to airlines, hotels, Railways and schools,” Gupta added.