The Relentless Pursuit of Building Jeeru

Mr. Rajiv Sehgal had one big dream, to build a consumer brand.
This is his story of how he built Jeeru with his kids.

He came from humble beginnings, worked for a few years, and saved up his money to fund his vision.  He first started off in packaged drinking water but realised that the unorganised sector was filled with thousands of brands like his. Knowing he couldn’t compete with the big three kinley, aquafina, and bisleri— he started thinking along the lines of, what value can be added to water? 

Mr. Sehgal started searching for a beverage that had no established brand leadership. He landed up on Jeera Masala. There were thousands of Jeera masala brands in the country but none of them had any national significance. Thus, Jeeru was born. Soon after, Anika joined the family businesses. Her job was to expand Jeeru’s visibility in the market. She started a successful incentive programme for the sales team by providing daily grocery items such as rice and cooking oil. She is also the face behind Jeeru’s strength in modern retail.  They didn’t just want to push sales by offering margins, so they decided to innovate. They started selling Jeeru in cans and as people started noticing the product— distributors started paying attention. 

Within two years, Jeeru started contributing over 11 percent of beverage sales for Future Retail. From ₹10 crore in 2010-11, Xotik Frujus has grown to a revenue of ₹72.95 crore in 2019-20. Jeeru started out as being a Mumbai and Surat based brand but now it has a pan India presence. Even airports sell a premium version of Jeeru. In fact, the brand gets exported to the UK, Middle East, and Africa.

After Anikta, her younger sister Vishaka followed suit and she manages general trade. Their brother Dishank has been the last to join and is focusing on diversifying the business by launching Xotic cafes. He was also instrumental in driving the brand’s partnership with 82.5 communications. 

The family’s dedication to Jeeru and the fact that we all love it is sending out a clear message— the story of Jeeru has many more chapters in store for us!

Link to Jeeru's instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/xotikjeeru/

At The Indian Dream, we would love to hear from you! If you have any questions or just want to connect with us– please feel free to join our WhatsApp Group Here!

We also write a newsletter in which we explore market trends that have the potential to explode in India! Check out TID Trends Newsletter - Here