Tata Tea to relaunch Himalyan mineral water

By Ramya Ramamurthy CNBC-TV18

Tata Tea acquired 32 percent in Mount Everest, and added the "Himalayan" natural mineral water brand to its beverage portfolio nearly one year ago. Now, the company has relaunched the Himalayan brand.

Water was always good for you, but Tata Tea hopes its rebranded Himalayan will make it better. The packaging all 5 versions  are new but the pricing of Rs 25 for a litre remains the same. The new look Himalayan will roll out in almost 19500 Tata Tea retail outlets as well as modern retail stores in Mumbai followed by other regions in the next few months. The natural mineral water brand Himalayan, which has over 50% of the Rs 100 crore natural mineral water market is now officially labeled as a Tata product and the group hopes to take the brand wherever its footprints exist.

Percy Siganporia, MD, Tata Tea said, “We will use the Himalayan brand to supplement Tata Tea's interest in the beverage market worldwide. We plan to take the product wherever we have other Tata products and obviously use the presence to boost the Himalayan brand.

Pradeep Poddar, MD & CEO, Mount Everest Mineral Water said, “The benefits of the Tata network will be immediate, especially in the retail area where nearly all retail outlets that Tata Tea stocks in, will also have Himalayan. We will also roll out nationwide.

Rediffusion DYR has helped design the bottle and this Rs One crore campaign by the agency will accompany the relaunch. While the Tata product will have to carve out a market for its premium priced natural mineral water, on the retail front it will also have to contend with packaged water market leader Bisleri that corners over 30% of the Rs 1500 crore bottled water market followed by Pepsi's aquafina and Coca cola's Kinley. The group plans to introduce functional and enhanced water variants of Himalayan to ensure it's geared up for competition at all market segments.