Ishita Malpani, Managing Director, Amruta Tea, on differentiation, retailer trust and scaling beyond Maharashtra
In a category dominated by legacy giants and deeply entrenched consumer habits, Amruta Tea has charted a distinct growth path by focusing on retailer relationships, regional strength and measured experimentation. In this conversation with BW Retail World, Ishita Malpani, Managing Director at Amruta Tea, outlines the strategic choices behind the brand’s resurgence, its expansion roadmap and how it plans to balance tradition with evolving consumption trends.
Amruta Tea has carved a distinctive presence in a highly competitive market. What strategic initiatives have been most instrumental in driving the brand’s growth so far? How have you positioned the brand to stand out from larger players?
Amruta Tea is a 38-year-old brand backed by the Malpani Group, which has a very strong FMCG supply chain across Maharashtra. However, for many years, the brand wasn’t actively driven by a family member—and in family businesses, that makes a significant difference.
I joined the family a little over two years ago, and even at the time of my engagement, I was given a clear choice: either take over Amruta Tea or start something new. Turning around an existing brand is challenging, but I saw strong potential here.
One of the most important strategic decisions we took was not positioning Amruta Tea as a direct substitute for large national brands like Wagh Bakri or Vikram Tea. That space is extremely cluttered, and competing head-on leaves very little room for differentiation.
Instead, we adopted a different pricing strategy and made subtle product-level changes. We realised that many consumers want to experiment with tea but don’t quite know how, because they are deeply rooted in their habits. Creating a bridge between familiarity and experimentation became our sweet spot. This approach has delivered strong results, particularly with our newer variant, Josh.
What role has marketing and visibility played in your growth journey so far?
Marketing and visibility are certainly important, and we are now investing more actively in this area. We are launching a full-fledged campaign by February, which will significantly increase brand visibility.
That said, until now, our primary focus has been on strengthening distribution and building strong, on-ground relationships. We wanted to ensure the fundamentals were solid before amplifying the brand through large-scale marketing.
Retailer relationships appear to be a key pillar for Amruta Tea. How has this helped differentiate the brand?
Retailer relationships are extremely important to us. Our sales team invests considerable effort in building personal connections—not just with distributors, but directly with retailers as well.
We’ve consistently heard from retailers that many large brands, due to their scale and dominance, do not always provide adequate service, particularly outside major urban centres. Our research also showed that in non-urban markets, retailers play a significant role in influencing consumer choices.
As a result, we adopted a retailer-first approach, ensuring that retailers see Amruta Tea as a profitable and long-term partner. This strategy has genuinely helped us stand out in competitive markets.
Amruta Tea is now visible on ecommerce platforms. Was this always part of the plan?
We have only recently registered on Amazon. From a strategic standpoint, we deliberately stayed away from modern trade and e-commerce in the early stages. Our priority was to build strong relationships with ground-level retailers first, especially given that our supply chain reaches over 20,000 villages across Maharashtra.
Now that these relationships are well established, we are expanding into e-commerce and plan to be present on more platforms in the near future.
Can you share insights into your market presence across organised and unorganised sectors? Which geographies are driving growth?
At present, we operate largely within the unorganised sector, as we are not yet present in modern trade. Market share is difficult to quantify in this space, but our growth has been strong.
For example, our Elaichi Tea commands double-digit market share in select pockets such as Nagar, Pune and parts of Marathwada. However, there are regions that are home turf for strong local competitors, which naturally makes penetration more challenging.
Maharashtra remains our core market. That said, we have observed that southern markets are far more open to experimentation. Even in terms of marketing ROI, returns in states like Karnataka are significantly higher compared to Maharashtra.
This insight has driven our expansion into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and we have also finalised our entry into Tamil Nadu. Additionally, exhibitions have helped us attract interest from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and even international markets such as Afghanistan.
What are your expansion priorities—physical retail, modern trade or e-commerce? How do you balance growth with efficiency?
We follow a cluster-based hybrid approach.
In urban markets such as Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad, retailer influence is limited and relationships are more transactional. In these markets, modern trade, e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms like Blinkit and Zepto make greater sense.
In rural and Tier 3–4 markets, retailers play a critical role in influencing purchase decisions. Here, our focus remains deep retailer penetration rather than modern trade. We aim to be available across A, B, C and D-class outlets.
Our marketing strategies also vary accordingly—bus wraps work well in urban markets, while auto branding is more effective in rural areas.
Operationally, the Malpani Group’s ecosystem allows us to scale efficiently. We leverage shared expertise across group businesses, which enables us to respond quickly to capacity and infrastructure requirements. Last year, we recorded a 27 per cent increase in sales volume, and we were able to manage that growth effectively.
Tea consumption patterns are evolving, with health-driven choices gaining prominence. How is Amruta Tea adapting to these trends?
Despite the rise of coffee, green teas and premixes, our research clearly shows that traditional chai is not going anywhere, especially in rural India.
While we do see value in exploring premixes and select green teas, our core focus will always remain traditional chai. We will continue adding flavours such as masala tea, which have already shown strong acceptance.
Premixes may eventually contribute around 10 per cent of our portfolio, and green teas about 5 per cent. Functional beverages could be explored in the future, but likely under a different brand identity.
Looking ahead to 2026, what is the single most important step for Amruta Tea?
2026 is a pivotal year for us. The groundwork laid in 2024 and 2025 will now move firmly into execution mode.
Our focus areas include large-scale visibility campaigns, leveraging in-house synergies with group businesses such as amusement parks, expanding into modern trade and e-commerce, and testing and scaling new geographies in a strategic manner.
The foundation is strong. Now, it is about execution, visibility and sustained growth.
