1) Established in the summer of 2015 by B9 Beverages and headquartered in New Delhi, Bira 91 has quickly become the rage amongst urban millennials owing to its delicious beers, bold identity, and strong draft network. It is crafted with the creative urban drinker in mind someone who likes to have fun and doesn’t take life (or beer) too seriously the brand aims to disrupt the global beer world with 21st-century technology and its playful monkey mascot. In 2017, Bira 91 leaped across to New York City to begin its campaign in the United States.

2) In 2018, the brand started its wider expansion in the Asia Pacific market by enteringSingapore.

3) In 2019, Bira beer clinches an ICC sponsorship deal for five years, making it the first Indian beverage brand to strike a global sponsorship deal with the cricket governing body. They featured in ICC world cup 2019 in England.

4) Sports marketing experts estimate the size of Bira 91’s sponsorship deal to be $5-6 million per year. The brand will benefit through this partnership as India will host two big-ticket events, including the Cricket World Cup 2023 and T20 World Cup 2021.

5) It is one of the fastest-growing beers in the world, Bira 91 has built a strong portfolio of essential beers and aims to drive the global shift in beer towards more color and flavor.

6) In less than three years, Bira 91 is now in the top 25 craft beer brands worldwide by sales volume and the fastest-growing beer brand in the world (growing 5x in 2017).

7) The company now operates two breweries in India and has offices in nine cities including New York City.

8) It has a passionate team of over 350 beer lovers who have only one goal – to change the world of beer and beer for the world.

9) B9 Beverages Pvt., the owner of Indian craft-beer brand Bira 91, will open its fifth local brewery before the end of the year 2021 as it seeks to capture swelling demand in the country for more flavorsome tipples before a planned initial public offering.

10) The capacity at Bira’s new planned unit can be expanded to 1 million hectoliters (1 hectoliter = 100 liters) -- boosting Bira’s existing capacity of 2 million hectoliters. Currently, the country’s fourth-largest brewer, Bira trails foreign firms that dominate the Indian market, including Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, Carlsberg A/S, and Heineken NV, which owns India’s Kingfisher.

11) With sales amounting to $170 million on an annual basis, Bira is set to be profitable at an operating level within six months as per Jain's interview to Economics Times taken on 25th of Aug 2021.

Private Equity Investors and Valuation of Bira Share Price

1) Bira 91 is backed by Sequoia Capital and Belgium’s Sofina Capital.

2) Bira 91 to date has raised close to 518 Cr and counts celebrities Farhan and Zoya Akhtar and film producer Ritesh Sidhwani along with Flipkart's CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Sequoia Capital among its investors.

3) Bira 91 other investors include Snapdeal’s Rohit Bansal, Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal, TR Capital, Anicut Capital, Sofina, and Smile Group, as per deals tracker Crunchbase.

4) Bira 91 last raised $50 million, announced in May 2018, at a reported valuation of around 1470 Cr. At that point in time, Bira Share price was around Rs. 400 per share.

5) In 2019, they have raised 30 Cr from Sixth Sense Ventures, at a reported valuation of 1722 Cr.

6) In April 2020, Bira 91, has raised Rs 38.08 crore ($5 million) from its existing investors, Sequoia India and Belgium-based investment firm Sofina. Sequoia has put 22.84 Cr and Sofina has put 15.23 Cr. At that point in time, Bira Share price was around Rs. 600 per share.

B91 is focussing on Premium Beer to Beat Inflation

India’s fastest growing craft beer maker Bira is planning to increase the sale of its premium beer to beat the inflation. We all know due to supply chain issues around the world, the inflation is very high. In India, we have seen the WPI is at 13% and CPI a 7%. This has affected the whole sectors in the economy.

Raw materials used in Beer?

The main raw material used for making and packaging of beer is Wheat or Barley, Glass, and Aluminium. And, the prices of these commodities are soaring in the market. As per Motilal Oswal Report, Barley prices have been surged by 65% in the last one year and 5% quarter on quarter in the month of March. The barley prices are affected due to Russia and Ukraine war, as Ukraine exports world 18% barley. As per Jain, the founder of Bira Beer, the current environment is extremely tough as cost has risen by 30-70%.

How bira is planning to tackle this?

We all know, Bira beer has a double digit market share in the premium beers. In fact, when Bira was started in the year 2015 at that time they were selling only premium beers. However, they have slowly started manufacturing other beers to target smaller tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 cities. Now, to beat inflation and pass on the cost to the consumers, they are focusing on selling premium beers. As wealthy people who consumes premium beers are not price sensitive.

How many beers bira produces every month?

As per Jain, B9 Beverages has also ramped up its capacity to 22 lakh cases a month (a case has 12 bottles), up from 6 lakh pre-Covid, with consumers returning to bars and liquor shops remaining functional. So, bira is producing ~2.64 Crores bottles a month.

Market size of Beer Industry

India’s beer industry, according to Expert Market Research estimates, was worth nearly Rs 37,100 crore in 2020, and is likely to reach Rs 66,200 crore by 2026 at an estimated annualised growth rate of about 9.2%. So, very good growth opportunities are available in the beer market for the company.

Valuation of Bira Beer

Currently, the Bira Beer Unlisted Share is available in the unlisted market at Rs.650 per share and with ~6 Crores shares outstanding, the Mcap or Valuation is ~3900 Crores. In FY23, they clocked a revenue of ~850 Crores, so Mcap/Sales = 4.5x.

Bira Unlisted Shares Competitors

Bira 91 is competing with beer startups such as White Owl, Simba, Brewbot, White Rhino, and Kati Patang.