Rohit and Steve Verma's sweet agenda: To reduce India's sugar intake with Wild Water beverages

Rohit and Steve Verma, directors of Beltek Canadian Water, want to reduce India’s sugar consumption with their Wild Water beverages.
With years of experience under their belt, cousins Rohit, 44, and Steve Verma, 42, realised that the Indian market was dominated by carbonated soft drinks. But consumers wanted drinks with low sugar and functionality to quench their thirst.

In 2012, they introduced Wild Water, the country’s first low-sugar beverage with vitamins, natural colours and flavours. Wild Water is an international standard water-based functional drink that has the goodness of vitamins. It is available in two types — Wild Vitamin Water and Wild Vitamin Sparkle.

With the Wild brand, the cousins aim to use the best ingredients to give the consumer the taste and feel of a world-class beverage.

“The Wild name is symbolic of wilderness, offering consumers products with natural ingredients and no preservatives. The formulations are
unique and are backed by the strength of our R&D,” says Steve.

With sales doubling year-on- year, the duo have now set their eyes on capturing 5-7 per cent share of the Rs 24,000-crore Indian beverage market.

Rough waters
Rohit and Steve made their foray into the business with Beltek Canadian Water in 1995 and introduced the bulk 20-litre packs with hot and cold dispensers. They would accompany their sales team to meet customers, and would come back disheartened after being told ‘who buys water in office and shops?’

Today, the packs are a necessity. After tasting success, the company formally became a franchisee of PepsiCo in 2003, and started bottling,
distributing and selling Aquafina bottled water.

Key challenges
The biggest challenge with Wild Water has been the Indian climate, which isn’t suitable for natural products once they are placed on the shelves. Another obstacle was building a country-wide distribution system, as the existing business was limited to Delhi NCR.

“We have divided the regions and responsibilities and are building on the team and distribution throughout the country,” says Steve. “Today,
Wild Water is available in most top-tier cities. We have been receiving queries from international markets and our dream is to make Wild an
international brand name.”

Rohit and Steve’s adventurous streak — both enjoy surfing, parasailing, and mountain biking —reflects in the efforts they make for the brand.

Changing consumer preference
According to Rohit, most beverages have sugar more than 8 grams per 100ml going up to 13 grams in carbonated drinks. “But once consumers have Wild drinks, the taste of regular beverages is not palatable. We are proud that we are helping lower sugar consumption,” he says. “We would like the government’s support to reduce tax on lowsugar drinks.”

Rohit says they want Wild to become a household item, with families ordering a full case every month.