Paper Boat is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

of traditional Indian beverages and foods produced and marketed by Hector Beverages, which is headquartered in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, India. Paper Boat was launched by Hector Beverages in August 2013. It comprises traditional Indian drinks such as ''

Aam Panna Aam Panna is an Indian drink. It is made from unripe mangoes and is yellow to light green in color. Mint leaves are often added to the drink, enhancing its green color. Unripe mango is a rich source of pectin, which gradually diminishes after ...

'', '' Jaljeera'' and '' Aam Ras''. The drinks were initially offered in single serving, flexible pouches; the company has since then expanded to one liter

Tetra Pak Tetra Pak is a Swedish multinational food packaging and processing company headquartered in Switzerland. The company offers packaging, filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice cream and prepared food, including distr ...

cartons. The company is funded by

N. R. Narayana Murthy Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy (born 20 August 1946) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is one of the seven co-founders of Infosys, and was the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief mentor of the company before ...

-led Catamaran Ventures, Footprint Ventures and

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

, among other investors.

History

Hector Beverages was founded in 2009 by Neeraj Kakkar, Neeraj Biyani, Suhas Misra and James Nuttall. The company's first product was a protein drink called Frissia, following which the energy drink brand, Tzinga was launched in 2011. In March 2013, the company launched Paper Boat, a fruit pulp based beverage brand and shifted its focus to the ethnic drinks segment. The brand launched with ''Aam Panna'' and ''Jal Jeera'' drinks and later added ethnic drinks including '' Aam Ras, Chilled Rasam,

Kokum ''Garcinia indica'', a plant in the mangosteen family (Clusiaceae), commonly known as ''kokum'', is a fruit-bearing tree that has culinary, pharmaceutical, and industrial uses. It grows primarily in India's Western Ghats: in the states of Mahara ...

Jamun ''Syzygium cumini'', commonly known as Malabar plum, Java plum, black plum, jamun, jaman, jambul, or jambolan, is an evergreen tropical tree in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae, and favored for its fruit, timber, and ornamental value. It is ...

Kala Khatta, Chilli Gauva and Neer More.'' The company went through a few organizational changes when co-founders Misra and Nuttall left the company in 2014, and 2015, respectively, leaving Kakkar and Biyani at the helm. In 2016, Paper Boat launched 500 ml

Tetra Tetra is the common name of many small freshwater characiform fishes. Tetras come from Africa, Central America, and South America, belonging to the biological families Characidae, Alestidae (the "African tetras"), Lepidarchidae, Lebiasi ...

Prisma Aseptic (TPA) packs of ''Aam Ras'' and ''Anar''. The 500 ml packs were discontinued in 2017, when the brand expanded its offering by launching its drinks in 1 liter Tetra Prisma Aseptic cartons. Paper Boat expanded to the traditional food segment in 2016 by launching the Indian snack, peanut ''

chikki Chikki is a traditional Indian sweet (brittle) generally made from nuts and jaggery/sugar. There are several different varieties of chikki in addition to the most common groundnut (peanut) chikki. Each variety of chikki is named after the ingr ...

''.

Products

Drinks

Paper Boat offers fruit based ethnic drinks and milk based beverages. Paper Boat produces two seasonal drinks associated with Indian festivals, ''Panakam'' (available during

Rama Navami Rama Navami () is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Rama, one of the most popularly revered deities in Hinduism, also known as the seventh avatar of Vishnu. He is often held as an emblem within Hinduism for being an ideal king and h ...

) and ''Sherbet-e-Khas'' (available during Eid). The brand launched Coconut Water in 2018. In its one-liter Tetra Pack cartons, the brand delivers ''Aam Ras'', ''Jamun'', ''Anar'', Apple, Guava, Mixed Fruit, Pineapple, Cranberry, Tomato and ''Lychee Ras''. ''Aam Ras'' previously contained 45% mango pulp, but reduced it to 25% (shrinkflation) and is made from naturally ripened mangoes. The drinks offered are as follows: * Aam Panna * Aamras * Anar * Chilli Guava * Ginger Lemon Tea * Jaljeera * Jamun * Kokum * Neer More * Panakam * Rose Tamarind * Şerbet-e-Khaas * Thandai * Lush Lychee

Foods

Peanut chikki was Paper Boat's first venture into ethnic Indian snacks. Paper Boat chikki is a Fair-Trade product, a certification that ensures that everyone involved in the making of a product is fairly employed and paid. The company procures its groundnuts directly from a farmers’ collective near Rajkot in Gujarat at the Fairtrade minimum price. Paper Boat chikki has three other variants: crushed peanut, sesame and Rajgira peanut. The foods offered are as follows: * Nuts, seeds, and berries: ** Almonds ** Cashews ** Mixed nuts ** Pistachios ** Raw nuts ** Supermixes ** Trail mixes * Snacks: ** Chikki ** Golgappa ** Aam papad

Production

Hector Beverages presently has two manufacturing facilities, one in

Mysuru Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

and one in

Manesar Manesar is a town and municipal corporation, known as New gurgaon city in the Gurugram district of the state of Haryana, India and a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. It is an Industrial Model Township home to factories and ...

Gurgaon Gurgaon (), officially named Gurugram (), is a satellite city of Delhi and administrative headquarters of Gurgaon district, located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest ...

, and with a capacity of ten million pouches per month. The company's first production plant was established in Manesar in 2010. A second, larger manufacturing unit was opened in

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

in 2014. While the Manesar plant has a production capacity of 80 bottles per minute, in the Mysuru plant, it is 380 bottles per minute.

Marketing

The brand name Paper Boat and the tag line ‘Drinks and Memories’ are intended to be references to the consumer's childhood. Paper Boat's television ads were set to an adaptation of the music of

RK Narayan Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), better known as R. K. Narayan, was an Indian writer and novelist known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early I ...

's '' Malgudi Days''. Paper Boat’s debut campaign was penned and narrated by poet and lyricist

Gulzar Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poetry, Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He starte ...

, while the later campaign was written by lyricist Swanand Kirkire. Apart from its television ads, the brand has also released a range short films such as ‘Ride Down the River of Memories’, ‘Waiting for Ma’, ‘My Struggles with the Treasure Chest’, ‘Hum honge kamyab’, and 'Rizwan - Keeper of the Gates of Heaven'. Paper Boat also ventured into book publishing. It has published reprints of ''

Three Men in a Boat ''Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)'',The Penguin edition punctuates the title differently: ''Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog!'' published in 1889, is a humorous novel by English writer Jerome K. Jerome describing ...

'' and ''

Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

'', which were given away with the beverages as part of gift boxes and sales offers. In 2017, the brand published ''Half Pants Full Pants'' by Anand Suspi, a collection of real-life tales about growing up in

Shimoga Shimoga, officially Shivamogga, is a city and the district headquarters of Shimoga district in the Karnataka state of India. The city lies on the banks of the Tunga River. Being the gateway for the hilly region of the Western Ghats, the city ...

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.paperboatfoods.com Indian drink brands Products introduced in 2013 Fruit drinks