Backbay: Boxed, not Bottled

At Rs 150 for 500ml and Rs 200 for 750ml, Backbay might just be India’s fanciest water, the kind you sip, not chug. In conversation with IMPACT, Actor Bhumi Pednekar and Lawyer-Entrepreneur Samiksha Pednekar, Founders of Backbay, reveal how the brand is positioning itself as a purpose-driven lifestyle beverage brand—using disruptive design, sustainability, and community-led marketing to stand out in India’s hyper-competitive water segment

Q] Backbay blends wellness, design, and sustainability beautifully, what led to its creation?
Bhumi: The germ primarily came from the fact that we felt a gap in the market for the conscious consumer—the consumer who cares about what they consume and its environmental impact. Samiksha and I have avoided single-use plastic for nearly a decade, and it became very tough for us to find such beverage solutions in the market. There’s so much information about toxins, lead, and toxic leaching of chemicals into our water and the beverages we drink, primarily because of the packaging. That’s when we realised there was a gap, and we wanted to fulfil it. So, Backbay comes from a place of problem-solving and disruption in the market with our unique packaging and water.

Q] The name ‘Backbay’ is unique. What’s the story behind the name?
Samiksha: When we realised that we wanted to enter the beverage space, we knew it was going to be water, our first product. We tried to find a quirk on the term water like paani or something similar. But then, we realised that it wasn’t category agnostic and in that journey, we were sure that we were working towards a beverage brand, not just a water brand. So one day we were going through a book and this is like one of Mumbai’s old books and we came across a map from the 1800s, where we saw the term Backbay and that really intrigued us because Mumbai is so close to both our hearts. It’s home for us. We are born and brought up here. We love the spirit of the city and that then became an ode and a driving force of the brand and that’s why we named it Backbay.

Bhumi: The one thing that defines Samiksha and I, is the Bombay spirit. We are very proud Mumbaikars and I felt that this is just the right fit for what we are. Also, we wanted to create a lifestyle beverage brand. So Backbay just felt right for it with all the future product lines also that are coming out. It just feels like the right fit.