How Bira 91's Ankur Jain is keeping the fizz alive

When we met at the Bira 91 headquarters in Delhi’s Connaught Place in March, Ankur Jain, CEO and founder of Bira 91,was in his usual attire—denims and a black T-shirt with the Bira monkey emblazoned on it. Months later, Jain and I are meeting virtually over a Microsoft Teams call. “It feels like we are living a different life," says Jain, dressed in the same T-shirt. The means of our communication may have changed but his attire hasn’t.

Despite the pandemic bringing major sections of the economy to a halt, it has been an eventful year for Bira. In March, it launched the Bira 91 Limited Release Taproom in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Jain says the taproom was meant to be a place where they could host consumers and get them to try out new variants of their brews. It was almost like “crowd-sourcing" the next Bira 91. “The intent with the taproom was to get every consumer to rate and vote our beers, give us feedback on what they like about them and what they don’t. We want to incorporate that feedback into the next very wide- and large-scale Bira 91 release," he adds. They hope to resume operations at the taproom in the next few weeks, with strict hygiene measures in place.

The taproom’s launch coincided with the brand’s five-year anniversary and the commissioning of a new brewery in Mysuru. “What we did in that brewery was, we installed a small microbrewery where we are able to make a 500-litre batch of beer. Typically, our batches of beer are a minimum of 6,000-10,000 cases.... This allows us to have a lot of new, experimental products that can be released quickly," explains Jain.

Ensuring that experimentation is still a part of the organization’s DNA, even if some of those experiments don’t work out, is really important for Jain, 39. He says he often finds himself “cajoling" his leadership team to take risks. “I definitely constantly push them into taking risks that they otherwise would not...half of them fail but that’s okay," he adds. The taproom, one such example, is where Jain hopes to release new beers inspired by new flavours, be it a west coast IPA (Indian Pale Ale), a Pomegranate Champagne Rosé beer or an imperial stout. “We are playing a lot with ingredients. We even did something with mango lassi!" he says.

Given the months of lockdown that followed, the taproom launch feels like a long time ago. The past few months, Jain admits, were a “very difficult operating environment". “We were shut like the rest of the country for almost 45 days completely—between 20 March-4 May. All our breweries were shut, all retail shops and restaurants were also shut. In May, a bunch of states started opening up but there were several disruptions and inconsistencies." he adds. Since then, he adds, the breweries have been able to restart operations, with safety checks and social distancing measures.

Through this period, most of the company’s 500-strong workforce has been functioning from home.As luck would have it, Bira 91 had put in place a “Makeplay" work-from-home policy earlier this year, well before covid-19 struck. “I think we reconditioned well to work from home. We had instituted the Makeplay policy last year and started allowing people to work from home for a certain part of their week," says Jain.

Jain explains that for the overall beer industry, 40% of sales happen in the crucial months of April-June. This May, he estimates, beer sales were down 75% compared to last year. “It’s quite insane," he adds. “In May, we (the company) were at 70% of our pre-covid levels (in terms of sales). There has been a massive decline in the beer sector, not only due to the disruption in the supply chain but because demand has also been impacted."

Sandip Ginodia , CEO

 

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