Paper Boat owner is double MBA from MDI and Wharton

Neeraj Kakkar, who grew up in a small town in Karnal district of Haryana. Kakkar graduated from an engineering college in Karnal, and then received a management degree from MDI, Gurugram. After more than a six-year stint at Coca Cola, he went to Wharton School for an MBA. While Kakkar had a few offers to work in the US, the pull of entrepreneurship brought him back to India in 2010. While Hector Beverages’ first product, an energy drink, was a success, the lack of clarity on regulations on energy drinks made the company look at other avenues. They hit upon the idea of healthy and traditional drinks, and the first of these, jaljeera, Paper Boat hit the markets four years ago. Aamras, anar, kokum and aam panna followed, and propelled the company to over 100% annual growth rates over the next three years. “Paper Boat gives us great satisfaction because we are preserving the centuries’ old drinks of India for future generations,” says Kakkar. The company has an R&D centre in Bengaluru, where research on 15 new products happens simultaneously. It takes around two years for a product to hit the market. For most traditional drinks, there are several variants and flavours. The company chooses one that it thinks will have a mass market. “We need to look at the inputs required, the machinery we can use, the scale we can achieve, the shelf-life of the products, and also ensure right cropping practices,” says Kakkar. The beverages are priced at a premium level, so 75% of sales comes from the six biggest cities. But the brand is gaining popularity across the country. Paper Boat receives mails from remote locations on local drink recipes. “We take those seriously,” says Kakkar. Today, his company employs over 800 people, with 400 of them in factories and another 250 in sales. It has a portfolio of 13 drinks and had cumulative sales of 60 million units over the past year. With the suggestions they receive and the R&D they do, Kakkar and Biyani are hoping to significantly expand that portfolio in the coming years.