Paper Boat : A Company Selling Memories

It was just like any other day when Neeraj Kakkar was enjoying his lunch at Suhash Mishra's home with two other business partners Neeraj Biyani and James Nuttal. The lunch ended up having "mom-made" aam panna ( An Indian traditional drink made of raw mangoes).

Few days later James Nuttal called up Neeraj asking him where he might find that 'aam panna' for his visiting parents. Eventually, they realized that the market may not have ready made 'aam panna' but if they linger on further on this point they might end up with a billion-dollar idea. They realized having hit the blind spot which was being overlooked for all this while. After the penetration of foreign beverages into the Indian market, local drinks lost their identity and are on the verge of extinction. This traditional drinks concept with a touch of motherland might hit the emotional side of Indians, they thought.

Neeraj Kakkar is a former employee of Coca-cola. In 2010 he set up his own beverage company named Hector Beverages. He also managed to raise funds worth $3 million from Catamaran Ventures of NR Narayan Murthy and Footprint Ventures based in Bengaluru for his energy drink product Tzinga, but it didn't work out well because of Red-Bull's monopoly in energy drink market. A simple idea from aam panna gave birth to this company named Paper Boat-Hector Beverages. Paper Boat's niche area is nostalgia. They are selling memories with each bottle of beverage. Paper Boat drinks are available in 10 different categories till now namely, Chilled Rasam, Sattu, Ginger Lemon Tea, Tulsi Tea, Aamras, Jaljeera, Kokum, Jamun, Aam Panna and Gol-gappe. It sells more than 2 million units per month. Neeraj's dream is to take his company beyond the boundaries of the country.

You can also visit Paper Boat's trendy website. Here is a short video for you from Paper Boat which will take you to a little ride down the memory lane. You will definitely enjoy it.