Vadodara-based Manpasand aims to double capacity in a year

Vadodara-based beverages player Manpasand, which is aiming to raise Rs 400 crore through its initial public offering, is planning to double its production capacity from a current 1 million litres per day within the next one year.

For starters, it has already planned a Rs 150 crore plant at Ambala in Haryana, that would have a capacity of 50,000 boxes per day. Average capacity of a box which contains 24-27 bottles is around 9 litres. At the moment, Manpasand has three more plants, two at Vadodara (one of them started operations in April this year) and one at Varanasi.

"There is a plan to come up with a plant down South as well, preferably in a mango growing region," said Dhirendra Singh, chairman and managing director of Manpasand Beverages. The company has recently launched its carbonated fruit based soft drink 'Fruits Up', which is targeted mainly at the urban markets.

According to Singh, the response to the newly launched brand has been tremendous and the company is now facing supply issues. "We will take Fruits Up to 50 major cities in the country over the next one year," he claimed. The company has been primarily operating in the rural market for all these years, and about 80 per cent of its sales come from the rural areas, and over 96 per cent of its sales comes from its flagship mango drink brand 'Mango Sip'.

Singh mentioned that cold beverages market in India is valued at Rs 50,000-60,000 crore, the fruit juice market is only about Rs 8,000 crore. Moreover, the juice market suffers from the seasonality factor with sales dipping by 60 per cent in cold weather, however, for the carbonated drink market it dips by 35 per cent only. Moving into a segment like carbonated drinks thus de-risks Manpasand's business.

As such the company estimates that there is huge scope for growth in the Indian beverages space, as the per capita consumption is only 3 litre per day. In comparison, in Pakistan it is around 16 litre per day and in the US its around 90 litres per day.

Manpasand is looking to raise Rs 400 crore by offloading 25 per cent stake in the current offering. Post issue, its market capitalisation will be Rs 1,600 crore.