This company sells luxury tonic water that goes well with alcohol

PEER is a luxury tonic water brand, and the latest launch of Leocorno Enterprises, a company formed by Anant Jangwal in 2016 that offers consumer brands in India, UAE, and the UK. PEER's current range comprises the regular Indian tonic, mint tonic, bitter lemon tonic, and a zero calorie and zero sugar tonic variant, which is the first of its kind in India. The brand will be launching four additional flavours in the coming months, with plans to venture into other beverage segments that offer innovative and healthy products. In an interview with Bizz Buzz, he divulges more details

Tell us more about Leocorno Enterprises?

Inception of Leocorno Enterprises was in 2016 with the launch of Vape Stop. Leocorno went on to become India's largest retailer of e-cigarettes with a 15 per cent retail market share (India operations currently on hold due to Govt. regulations), which has now expanded to UAE & UK. The company's latest launch is PEER – a contemporary lowest-calorie premium beverage brand, currently offering 4 tonic water flavours, two of which are unique. It is the first mixer brand to offer zero calorie/sugar tonic water in India, and the only Indian origin mixer brand to offer bitter lemon tonic water.

How did the concept of tonic waters evolve for the company?

We have been tracking the recent growth and acceptance of premium gins and tonic, a trend that particularly picked up in the UK from 2016 onwards. However, it was only around 2019 that the premium gin and tonic market saw an uptick in India. Indian consumers were willing to pay a higher premium and wanted to experiment with a wider variety of gins. Additionally, consumers are now even caring about the tonic that goes with their gin.

We worked intensely on finalizing the tonic recipes that would appeal to the Indian palate, and on creating a contemporary brand positioning. Regular tonic water typically contains as much sugar as soft drinks, which is 8-9 grams per 100ml. Such a high dosage of sugar is added to mask the bitterness of quinine. However, PEER wanted to create a tonic that has superior taste, but without the extra sugar and calories. This is one reason why it took PEER 1.5 years, 20+ blind tasting focus group sessions, and numerous ingredient combinations to perfect the flavour profiles while containing 50 per cent less sugar than other mainstream tonics. PEER has gone a step further and even created a zero sugar and zero-calorie tonic variant for the health-conscious consumers.

India is a whisky drinking country, do you plan tonic waters to go well with whisky?

Even though the white spirits consumption (including for gin) in India is less than five per cent of the total IMFL & FMFL market (with whiskey being the dominant category at 60 per cent share), India is still the fifth largest market for gin in the world. Globally, gin as a category was the second fastest growing spirits segment in 2019 after non‐alcoholic spirits. And the premium gin market in India is expected to grow at 11.1 per cent CAGR during 2020-2025.

We have a tonic water flavour (bitter lemon tonic) that is known to mix well with vodka as well as gin, however we currently do not have a flavour that is known widely to be a mixer with whiskey. PEER is developing a mixer for the whisky segment, which will be out in the market by the end of 2022.

What is the response to your tonic water flavours as a beverage? What is the response to your tonic water as a mixer in cocktail/mocktail bars? What has been the early response to the brands?

In the first month since its soft launch, the brand sold 6,000 units of its tonic water, and is currently growing at 15 per cent month-on-month.

The response from customers in premium retail outlets has been tremendous! Our 0 Cal. tonic is turning out to be the top selling, followed by bitter lemon and mint tonic. In select modern trade stores we are present in, PEER has already captured a 10 per cent share of the sales volume in the premium tonic water category, in those stores.

Bitter lemon is one flavour which many people wants to drink as is, without mixing any alcohol with it. People find the taste appealing, and like the fact that it is not sweet like conventional lemon-flavoured soft drinks. Many restaurants/bars are listing this variant along with mint tonic water as a non-alcoholic beverage to be had as it is.

PEER tonic water range received widespread appreciation from top mixologists and F&B critics. Bitter lemon tonic and Vodka for example is a known cocktail, and is turning out to be a liked cocktail in HORECA venues where PEER is currently being served. Mint tonic as well as Indian tonic water is also well received by bars since they are complimenting well with the various cocktail/mocktail recipes. Mixologists and beverage experts believe that the tonics are perfectly balanced and enhance the flavour of the spirit rather than overpowering it. The 0 Cal. Indian tonic water is widely appealing to HORECA venues with the growing demand for guilt-free cocktails. We are placed in the Quorum for example, a members-only club that has curated a special 'skinny cocktails' menu using PEER 0 Cal Indian tonic, for members who tend to be diet conscious.

What are your production capacities and what you reckon are the break even points in terms of volume cases?

PEER is manufactured in Alwar in a US FDA certified facility in a fully automated filling line. This ensures the highest quality and consistency of products.

Which states are your products available in?

PEER is available in leading modern trade stores in Delhi NCR such as Le Marche, NEEDS, Modern Bazaar, Natures Basket and top general trade stores. PEER is also available in Punjab and Uttrakhand, and will be entering Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Goa and Rajasthan in the next 60 days. We also ship pan India via the company website, and online platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and other beverage market places.

What are the price points for your brands?

PEER offers 4 flavours: Indian Tonic Water, 0 Cal. Indian Tonic Water, Bitter Lemon Tonic Water, and Mint Tonic Water. Each is priced at MRP Rs95 for a 200ml glass bottle.

Indian Tonic is the classic original tonic flavour, which is a go-to tonic for most consumers. With extensive R&D we launched a 0 Calorie & 0 sugar variant of the Indian tonic as well to meet the needs of the health conscious consumers.

Mint is a very traditional ingredient in our Indian culture and adds that refreshing edge to anything you use it in. Mint is one of the most preferred herbs that people use to top their G&Ts to balance the strong botanicals in the gin. We created a refreshing mint flavoured tonic which tastes as natural as a mint leaf when added to your Gin.

There was a time when gin was consumed with Lime Cordial - a balanced combination of lime juice, water and sugar. However, Lime Cordial in today's time has been replaced by Bitter Lemon Tonic Water - which has the same exotic lemon taste, sugar and water, but also carbonation and quinine. The flavour is known to be had as a mixer, and also by itself. We at PEER wanted to keep the essence of bitter lemon taste, but without the use of excessive sugar which is typically the case with Bitter Lemon tonic water available in the West in order to mask the bitterness of quinine.

What will be strategic plans for the future?

PEER is projected to be available in 1,500 points of sale by end of 2023 across 30 cities (capturing a 10 per cent share of the total premium tonic water market), and 2,500 points of sale by the end of 2025 across 50 cities (capturing a 36 per cent share of the total premium tonic water market).

PEER plans to launch 2 new skus per year over the next 4 years in tonic water and related categories. The common factor across all these product types will be that they will be innovative and will cater to conscious adult consumers.