Bira 91 faces worker woes, provide pressure

BENGALURU: Craft beer maker Bira 91 is experiencing elevated unrest amongst each present and former staff, who’ve cited points akin to pending salaries, unreimbursed allowances, and unresolved dues.These considerations linger months after the corporate started a restructuring train that was by no means formally labelled a layoff.
A former gross sales worker reported, “I used to be advised to serve a two-month discover after resigning in December, however in January, it was out of the blue lower brief by a month. They promised to clear my dues, however I’ve been ready 90 days now. The most recent replace says it might come by Might 31.”
A number of staff knowledgeable TOI that wage delays started in November 2024, with reimbursements for journey and every day bills halted across the identical interval. In January 2025, a number of workers members have been both reassigned to completely different cities or instructed to modify roles. A former worker acknowledged, “I used to be in advertising and advised to maneuver into gross sales in one other state. This was the case for 70% of us. Those that didn’t settle for have been advised to resign.”
Internally, the workforce reported a continued decline within the firm’s monetary well being since final yr. A former advertising government highlighted a substantial discrepancy between anticipated and achieved outcomes. “In 2023, Bira aimed for bold gross sales targets however ended up doing solely 40% of it. Hiring and spending have been primarily based on a lot greater progress expectations. It grew to become unsustainable.”
The identical worker famous vital advertising outlays, with an estimated Rs 200-250 crore spent on a five-year ICC sponsorship concluding in 2023, together with a number of IPL crew partnerships. “We created demand with ATL and BTL campaigns, however there was no inventory on cabinets. Distributors weren’t paid, uncooked materials didn’t arrive, and breweries stopped working. The Rs 80 crore loss blamed on labelling was only a cowl.” Bira 91 didn’t reply to TOI’s request for remark.
The corporate modified its authorized identify in 2023, necessitating product relabelling throughout numerous states. This coincided with delayed funds to distributors and a list scarcity through the summer time. Workers reported that operational disturbance prolonged into the height beer season. Trade observers attribute these challenges to overextension. Vinod Giri, Director Normal of the Brewers Affiliation of India, commented, “New manufacturers hoping to disrupt beer should stroll a advantageous line between progress and uniqueness.Increasing too quick with the mistaken state combine or unused capability can rapidly grow to be unsustainable.”
Sanjay Jain, an alcobev market observer and founding associate at Taj Capital, added, “Beer is a quantity sport. Bira had a robust area of interest identification however pivoted too rapidly to scale. Enterprise capital typically misreads the unit economics of beer – it’s not FMCG.”
Bira 91, based in 2015, secured roughly $457 million from traders akin to Sofina, Kirin Holdings, MUFG Financial institution, and Peak XV Companions. The latest funding spherical of $25 million closed final yr. The corporate’s income fell 22% to Rs 638 crore within the 2023-24 monetary yr, whereas web losses widened to Rs 748 crore, partly as a consequence of a list write-off linked to the labelling transition