Bisleri was a side bet — a non-compete clause made it India's water king

Bisleri was introduced in India in 1966 by an Italian doctor and an Indian businessman. The brand was struggling and looking to exit the market. In 1969, the Parle Group — a company built on biscuits and soft drinks — acquired the Italian brand for ₹4 lakh (about $50,000 at the time). The price was small. The brand was an afterthought.

Ramesh Chauhan inherited Bisleri when his father split the business between his two sons in the 1970s. Ramesh got Parle Exports, which included Bisleri and the soft drink brands Thums Up, Limca, and Gold Spot. He focused on the soft drinks. Bisleri was a side project — a bottled water brand in a country where nobody bought bottled water.

In 1993, Coca-Cola re-entered the Indian market and bought Ramesh's soft drink brands — Thums Up, Limca, and Gold Spot — for ₹125 to 200 crore. The deal included a 15-year non-compete clause. Ramesh Chauhan could not make soft drinks. He was left with Bisleri, the water brand he had bought for ₹4 lakh.

The non-compete clause forced him to focus on water. Bisleri switched from PVC to PET bottles in the mid-1980s, making water portable and accessible. The brand expanded distribution across India. By the 2020s, Bisleri had 150 plants, 6,000 distributors, and 32% of India's organized bottled water market. The brand became a generic term for bottled water in India — like Xerox for photocopying. In FY24, Bisleri reported revenue of ₹2,689 crore. A side bet bought for ₹4 lakh had become India's most trusted water brand, and the non-compete clause was the reason.