Andhra Pradesh businesswoman aims for India's 1st beer brewed by women

HYDERABAD: Unless you are a nerd interested in the history of bubbly champagne, you may not have heard about Madame Clicquot, the 19th-century woman entrepreneur from France. She took over her husband's wine business in 1805 and was instrumental in making champagne an international phenomenon - the drink synonymous with celebration.
Now meet D Rasagna Rao, the 33-year-old Telugu woman entrepreneur from Visakhapatnam who sees the Grande Dame of Champagne as a role model. Not surprising, given that Rasagna is among the women pioneers in India's alcohol business. She is among India's first female micro and commercial brewery entrepreneurs, reports Sribala Vadlapatla.
Unless you are a nerd interested in the history of bubbly champagne, you may not have heard about Madame Clicquot, the 19th-century woman entrepreneur from France. She took over her husband’s wine business in 1805 and was instrumental in making champagne an international phenomenon – the drink synonymous with celebration.
Now meet D Rasagna Rao, the 33-year-old Telugu woman entrepreneur from Visakhapatnam who sees the Grande Dame of Champagne as her role model. Not surprising really, given that Rasagna is among the women pioneers in India’s alcohol business. She is among India’s first female micro and commercial brewery entrepreneurs in the country
“In the 1800’s, it must have been extremely difficult for women even in France. Things are changing; just the other day, a Singapore distributor told me how excited he was to work with India’s first female brewery owner,” Rasagna says excitedly
Rasagna says excitedly. Pushing against stereotypes Rasagna established the first microbrewery in Visakhapatnam when it was unheard of for women to take on the challenges of the liquor business in India. She is now planning to go a step further by launching her beer brand focussed on foreign markets which will be brewed by women.
“My stay in Spain, where breweries are common, made me curious about the business,” she says. “I was in Madrid and engaged in smart city consultant work while studying for an MBA at the Complutense University of Madrid. I studied a lot of breweries and thought I should come back and set one up in India.”
After her Visakhapatnam venture, she moved to Goa last year and became a commercial brewery entrepreneur. “Ours will be the first beer brand in India founded by a woman. In fact, 70% of the staff, including machine operators, are women. Women are not limited to HR and marketing in our company,” says Rasagna.
“I relocated to Goa because Goan water is well-known on the international circuit for producing excellent beers. We are currently talking to distributors in the US, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore,” she adds.
Speaking about the challenges of being in the industry she says, “Both my father and husband have been extremely supportive. The resistance came from outside, right from permissions to the industry having a completely male-dominated supply chain mechanism. In fact, one banker told me that I should bring my husband on board for my business to get a loan because he thought women couldn’t do it.”