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Aman Gupta is too smart to try and sell water to the Eskimos. More cleverly, he's getting pure spring water from Finnish Lapland — Santa Claus territory — and selling it to the Russians, the Chinese and the British.

Now, the hotelier-turned-businessman is looking at selling his super-expensive Veen fine spring water to Indians. And since Lapland's a long way off, he has found a spring in Bhutan from where he can supply Indian customers. 'I think the Indian market has enormous potential, especially since the hotel industry is growing so fast,' says the 38-year-old businessman who divides his time between London and Delhi and whose office revolves around his laptop and his Skype connection.

Gupta has no difficulty pinpointing his breakthrough moment in the fine water business. It was the day in 2008 when Harrods, London's landmark department store, selected Veen to be its in-house fine water. That meant Veen was served at the 31 restaurants — like the champagne bar and the sushi bar — that are scattered all around the mammoth department store. Says Gupta: 'That was the breakthrough of breakthroughs. Harrods gave us a huge amount of exposure. We were the exclusive water for the entire building and that tripled sales.'

There's been no looking back since the moment Veen made it through the doors of Harrods. For the next one year Gupta and the company's two Finnish owners were scrambling to boost production and build up their water treatment plant. Says Gupta: 'Overnight our sales tripled and it took about a year to cope. It was a small company and that was such a big break.'

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  Veen's global advertising campaigns are handled by Gurgaon-based Bang In The Middle

It was a giant leap forward for Veen which had been started by two Finns who had never travelled out of Finland and who were still feeling their way forward in the international arena. Gupta, who was then Veen's UK distributor, by contrast, was a veteran globetrotter who had worked his way up the corporate ladder with the Four Seasons hotel group in Australia, Las Vegas and, finally, London.

But, Gupta's from a Mumbai-based business family and as he reached his early 30s his father kept prodding him to strike out and become an entrepreneur. That's when he started scouting for business opportunities related to the hotel and restaurant industries. Says Gupta: 'I started looking for different brands that didn't exist in the UK with the thought of bringing them to the country and introducing them to the hotel and restaurant market.'

Soon, he had found five products and one of them was Veen (the others included goji berry juice from Tibet that has been hailed as a super-food, and a high quality olive oil).

But Veen was the one that went into vertical takeoff mode and when one of the company's Finnish owners fell sick and decided to pull out, Gupta bought in. Says Gupta: 'I felt this was a good opportunity.'

The next stop was Qatar, with its cash-rich locals and dinar-enhanced expats. But around the same time Gupta's remaining partner decided it was time to pull out. Gupta didn't hesitate to buy him out.

A word of explanation is needed about Veen. It's a boutique brand of what's called 'fine' water. The muscular giants in the fine water business are brands like Evian, owned by French multinational Danone, and Perrier, the liquid star that belongs to Swiss giant Nestle. Other boutique fine water brands include the Norwegian Voss and another brand Fiji.

Fine waters are different from mineral water and, in fact, Gupta points out that the lack of minerals in Veen ensures a neutral flavour and that makes it great for mixing with whisky or with haute cuisine. That's why Veen's key customers are upmarket hotels and restaurants.

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  Veen's water comes from a spring in Finnish Lapland and it will also be bottled soon in Bhutan

From the moment he took over the company entirely, Gupta has been racing from one new market to another. Today, he's selling Veen in 22 markets and his most successful forays have been in China and Russia, which are now his biggest markets. Besides that the Middle Eastern markets — Qatar, UAE and Kuwait — are developing a thirst for Veen and Gupta's still looking at a thrust into Saudi Arabia. 'That's the big one,' he says.

Veen's still running a lean operation with only 11 executives strung out across the world. But he outsources and depends on Indian inputs in more ways than one. Veen's global advertising campaigns are handled by Gurgaon-based Bang In The Middle, headed by advertising world heavyweight Pratap Suthan. Veen built its brand name in the UK largely by being highly visible at events like London Fashion Week.

Later this month, if all goes to schedule, Veen will launch its water bottled in Bhutan in the Indian market. Veen has made several changes for its Indian foray. Everywhere else in the world Veen sells in carefully designed glass bottles. In India it will come to customers in plastic bottles. Veen's even looking at India's retail market in the not too distant future.

Don't imagine for a moment that selling fine water is an easy business. 'Harrods was selling our water for 7 a 660ml bottle, but that wasn't what they paid us. This is a low margin, high volume business,' says Gupta, who also adds that so far he has raised finances from a mix of family and friends.

Can a business started by two Finns and taken global by a young Indian make it on a giant scale in different parts of the world? Aman Gupta's definitely hoping that he has hit an unending gusher.