Packaged Drinking Water Business in India: Fueling Demand

Packaged drinking water can be constituted of mountain water, normal water, or spring water. Mountain and spring water are connected with mineral water. In the industry of packaged drinking water, flavored drinking water has gained momentum and has become the people’s favourite. The packaged drinking water business encompasses purifying the water, bottling them to make them consumption-ready, and eventually selling them into customers’ hands. Packaged bottled water is considerably convenient to carry, mainly for commuters, students, and workers.

It keeps their energy level boosting by hydrated them from time to time, irrespective of their proximity to the water supply. Blustering air, land, & water pollution has severely affected our mother earth and people living on the earth.

Unpacking untreated trash instantly into the waterways has brought a reduction in the quality level of water. Consumption of water from sources such as ponds and lakes are not safe. Besides this, untreated water is also deemed as hazardous for direct consumption by human beings. It will cover dirt, microbes, and pollutants, which will undeviatingly attack on health and well-being. Hence, it is necessary to drink treated along with properly filtered water amassed from a clean source of origin.  This understanding has heightened the demand for packaged drinking water all over the world; especially it is required in developing countries like India.

Drinking Water Business: Introduction

All the living beings have their own share of struggle against all the odds and misfortunes taking place in their life. They should look for their rights to get access to potable water fit for direct human consumption. Despite being labeled as the supreme healing element on this mother earth, water should be clean, safe as well as fit for drinking purposes. Due to the increasing unhygienic circumstances in our environment on a daily basis, the pureness offered by water has become a matter of significant concern. Nevertheless, the packaged water drinking business’s extension has stocked masses of hope to people that they will be getting refined & mineral mix water to drink ere the closing packaging takes place.

The human body demands 4-7 liters of water daily to get freed of dehydration and the intact body system’s extra dynamic functioning. Recently, the packaged drinking water business has paced up because of the ever-increasing health-related issues along with the unavailability of clean and purified drinking water for one and all. Thus, people prefer to have packaged drinking mineral water and thereby, accelerating the packaged drinking water business in the geographical boundaries of India.

Challenges Faced by Packaged Drinking Water Business

The possible challenges that packaged drinking water businesses have to face at the time of initiation of the business are-

• Technical information concerning machine handling, water testing is a requisite for the staff. Hiring them is an expensive matter, and so is enlightening them with proper training.
• The packaged drinking water business is reliant on perpetual power up to a great extent. So, orders for generator sets should be done to ensure operations during power interruptions. 
• Diverse weather conditions hit the availability of water, and its quality, so take additional care throughout the summers & monsoons.
• The business of packaged drinking water is susceptive to cyclic inspections in order to observe water quality and hygiene conditions.
• The packaged drinking water business requires higher capital for the establishment of a plant, hire a particular job location, transport water, procure vast machinery, and conduct maintenance repairs. 

Drinking Water Business – Steps Involved

The steps immersed in the composition of packaged drinking water rely on the position of the source water. The condition of source water illustrates the treatment necessitated. Treated water should get bottled in filtered bottles with a description displaying the details of price, expiry, composition, quantity, etc. A semi-automatic plant or a fully-automatic plant can be installed depending on the scope of production.

Initiating a packaged drinking water business in India becomes an easy and convenient process after following the steps mentioned below-

Conduct a Feasibility Study in the Beginning

Market analysis on a thorough basis can give appropriate insights concerning less explored market areas and opportunities or even advancement to packaged bottled water. A feasibility study is necessitated for a businessperson to comprehend the needs, maintain the pricing policy, and draft a marketing formula that can help the product with the sustainability factor.

Get your Business Name Registered

It’s extremely crucial to get your business name registered. It aids in knowing the market and identifying various business-related prospects, earning customers’ faith in you and your business, and preventing your competitors from misusing your name in the field.

Note down your Business Plan

Packaged drinking water business plan must have divisions like vision, missions, marketing, return estimations, promotion, potential market, staffing, capital, executive summary, and analysis of the market. A business plan for rising packaged drinking water business clarifies the execution process and also brings funds on the counter.

Opting for a Perfect Location is a Key!

Select a location within a proper strategy by studying numerous factors such as a water source, transportation distance to the market, along with the affordability part linked with a space wide enough to lay up large water tanks, availability of the space, and, most importantly, an unending supply of power. You need to ensure that the location picked has ample space for transporting water tankers.

Ascertaining an Appropriate Water Source is Crucial

An uncontaminated water source is essential for the progress of the business of this sort. The source of water could be seawater, municipal supply, surface water, boring well water, or various sources in which treatment is obtainable.

Identification of Bottle Suppliers

The worth of bottles purchased for filling water is one of the substantial costs incurred in the trade of bottled water. Hence, to achieve significant profit margins, focus on diminishing the expense of bottles. Get a supplier who furnishes bottles for an amenable price with high-grade quality.

Machinery Acquisition

The machinery for packaged water drinking business depends solely on the scale on which you will be advancing for the composition. The general machinery required is a generator, tanks, sealing machines, bottle filling, labeling, treatment machines, filters, testing tools, and water filtering chemicals. To ensure cleanliness as well as safety, the bottles should be rinsed and disinfected. It can be executed manually with the aid of warm water for small scale water plant units but requires to get automated for medium and large-scale units.

Staff Hiring

Hiring experienced machine operators, water testing individuals, and salespersons are pivotal to drive the business venture. Minimum staffing for packaged drinking water business unites a trained and well-equipped expert for water testing, production helpers, machine operators, sales manager, supervisors, drivers, and cleaners.  Packaged drinking water business involves numerous activities and might have obscured processes depending on the water purification procedure.

Obtain Requisite Licenses and Permits

After getting the business registered, licenses, and permits on settling a water plant, the acquisition of water, selling them, as well as approving water safety is required. Any licenses or permits’ inadequacy might demand critical actions from the government end and may even head to the company’s closedown.

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FSSAI License for Packaged Drinking Water Business

• Basic License – If your year-long turnover is not passing Rs 12 lakh per year
• State License – If your annual turnover is surpassing Rs 12 lakh but not exceeding more than Rs 20 crore
• Central License – If your annual turnover is bouncing the value of the Rs 20 crore figure

Applicability of the FSSAI license is for varied forms of packaged drinking water. Recently, the top regulatory body, FSSAI, has begun working actively to confirm that all FBOs selling packaged drinking water must comply with FSSAI guidelines and need to have a license for evenly driving the packaged drinking water business anywhere in India. 

FSSAI Standards with Respect to Packaged Drinking Water Business

The manufacturers must get accustomed to the FSSAI license and standards to make everything explicit that water is drinkable for direct human consumption and won’t be letting any health complexities. 

FBOs or business owners who are engaged in the packaged drinking water business in India need to clutch the following FSSAI standards-

• Thepackaged drinking water must pass through special treatment likedecantation, remineralization, aerations, filtration using membrane filter, filtration, cartridge filter, demineralization, reverse osmosis, a combination of filtration, depth filter, etc.
•   The packagers need to ensure that with the support of chemical agents or physical arrangement of any type, the packaged water gets purified and disinfected; retaining in mind that microorganism’s level should be underneath the food safety level acceptable by experts.
• It’s indispensable to extend the usage of sealed containers with diverse forms, habits, and means that must be fit in all the ways for immediate consumption.
•  It must get desalinized in the event of seawater prior to getting the treatments, as specified above.
• When the water blends with the remineralization process, the ingredients employed in the water should be in accordance with food-grade and pharma-grade quality.

Obeying the FSSAI Parameters is Crucial!     

As FSSAI has labeled precise parameters, all the manufacturers associated with this packaged drinking water business in India need to obey the parameters asserted below- 

• General parameters concerning unwanted elements in unnecessary massive amounts
• Parameters in conjunction with radioactive residues
• Organoleptic along with physical parameters
• Parameters for pesticide residues
• Parameters with regard to the toxic substance

Packaging Requirements

Packaged drinking water business should adhere to the ISI standards given below- 

Materials in Use	ISI Standards
Polypropylene	IS: 10910
Polyethylene	IS:10146
Polyvinylchloride	IS:10151
Poly-alkylene Terephthalate	IS:12252

Free From Microorganisms

The packaged drinking water needs to be free from microorganisms mentioned below-

• Colifm Bacteria
• Yeast and Mold
• Salmonella and Shigella
• Salmonella Typhi
• Escheriorchia Coli
• Pseudomonas Aeruginosin
• Fecal Streptococci
• Vibrio Cholera
• Staphylococcus Aureus
• Sulfate Reducing Anaerobes
• V. Para Hemolytic Us

Labelling on the Packages- Requisites

Drinking water packages need to have the following labelling engraved on them-

• “BEST BEFORE THE MANUFACTURING DATE”
• “NATURAL MINERAL WATER”
• “CRUSH THE BOTTLE AFTER USE”
• “PACKAGED DRINKING WATER”

     The container/bottle must reveal the following points-

• Date of Expiry
• M.R.P
• FSSAI License no. of both Marketing Agency along with Manufacturer
• Date of Manufacturing

Provisions Related to Labelling

• No claims concerning prudent, remedial as well as alleviative healing effects required to be made in reciprocity to the product characteristics consolidated by the legal claims associated with the consumer’s well-being must not be made.
• The locality name, hamlet name, or name of a special place may not be a portion of a trading name till the moment; it applies to packaged water for drinking collected at a site assigned by the trade name.
• Utilizing any image or any state may fill the heads of the public with packets of confusion or can also deceive the public about the composition, position, traits as well as the source of such waters.

Benefits of Packaged Drinking Water Business

• Light to carry
• Free from contamination due to pesticides, venomous minerals, and microorganisms
• Free from disgusting relish and odor

Water Source

As per the FSSAI guidelines, water must get obtained from the sources stated below- 

• Surface Water
• Underground Water
• Civic Water Supply
• Sea Water
• Various other Water Sources

Latest Updates

• FSSAI has clarified in an advisory distributed in the previous year that BIS Mark & FSSAI License both are mandatory for manufacturing as well as the sale of packaged drinking water & natural mineral water.
• FSSAI has also presented clarification in the advisory that most of the natural or packaged drinking water makers are operating their business either without going for FSSAI License or without a BIS certification mark or License.
• In order to trade, manufacture, or display for selling mineral water and packaged drinking water, BIS certification requires to get achieved by the manufacturers or packagers.
• As supplied in the FSS Packaging and Labelling Regulations, 2011, the specification of the product should be packaged drinking water or natural mineral water.
• In contemporary times, FSSAI has asserted that importers with an FSSAI license must import packaged drinking water from those foreign makers who have obtained BIS certification.
• FSSAI has given the commands to Food Safety Commissioners of States to unlock routes to DOs/FSOs to manage surveillance activities in their separate administration areas to keep a routine inspection on compliances by those manufacturers that are concerned in making packaged drinking water and take significant actions at blades with the defaulters according to the provisions of FSS Act, 2006.

Take Away

If you are thinking about initiating a packaged drinking water business in India, you need to acquire BIS Certification along with FSSAI License. Besides this, you must get equipped with the above-mentioned points such as business registration, business plan, market analysis, etc. All the documents are vital for the endless streaming of the packaged drinking water business. Those food businesses that are engaged in the import of packaged drinking water & mineral water need to be in accordance with BIS certification & FSS Regulations, 2011. At Aatmnirbhar Sena, we will help you out with all the requisites and wholehearted support for running a packaged drinking water business in India.