United Breweries, India's largest beer maker, plans to be a water neutral company within the next 10 years, according to a top company executive.
“Our aim is to be a water neutral company by 2025. There are breweries where we have put back water, we have breweries which are water negative or which are water neutral but as a company we are not there yet. So that is definitely the road ahead,” United Breweries senior vice president marketing Samar Singh Sheikhawat told Deccan Herald.
It will happen through rain water harvesting, through water recycling, through water conservation, Sheikhawat added. Availability of water is one of the key issues for the company when it comes to setting up a plant.
With many of the states in the country including Maharashtra and Telangana facing acute water shortage, the company is facing problems, according to Samar Singh Sheikhawat.
The company, which had recently forayed into the ready to drink (RTD) segment through Kingfisher Buzz, is bullish about its prospects going forward. “We hope to get 20-30% market share in the first year and about 40-50% in the second year and hope the industry will grow with our entry,” Sheikhawat said.
The company aims to introduce Kingfisher Buzz on a pan-India basis over the next 12-18 months, Sheikhawat added.
United Breweries manufactures Kingfisher Buzz at its Taloja facility in Maharashtra.