B9 Beverages doubles its losses to Rs 101 crore in FY18

The maker of Bira craft beer, B9 Beverages has almost doubled its losses to Rs 101 crore in FY18. B9 Beverages' sales climbed to Rs 161 crore from Rs 32 crore in FY17, in which the company had posted a net loss of Rs 55 crore.

B9 Beverages was launched about four years ago. It has managed about a 5% share in key markets despite the dominance of Kingfisher, AB InBev's Corona and Budweiser, and Carlsberg.

Ankur Jain, Founder of B9 Beverages, said, "We expect to break even in India business in FY21."

Last year, B9 Beverages had raised $50 million from Brussels-based investment firm Sofina. As per GlobalData forecast, the beer segment expanded 6% to 2771.5 million litres in 2018.

"B9 wants to expand geographic footprint to cash in on the rising popularity of craft beer. We are still not active in much geography, but we expect to expand in the upcoming fiscal on the back of new capacity and a mass market product that we will be launching this summer," added Jain. 

Rahul Singh, Founder, The Beer Café, stated, "Bira's growth has shown the potential in the Indian beer sector. It is worthy to see an indigenous home-grown brand shaking the might of established behemoths."