UB plans new product rollouts every 2 years

United Breweries Ltd (UBL), the top player in the Indian breweries market with about 50% share, expects the domestic beer market to grow at about 15% annum to touch 270 million cases this fiscal. While in value terms it is estimated to be at about Rs19,000 crore, the strong beer would constitute about 83% of the volume.

“We are planning to further strengthen our presence in the market by rolling out new products. It takes about four years or so for us to launch a new product. This is preceded by market study and others,” Samar S Sheikhawat, UBL’s senior vice-president, said. He was in Hyderabad to launch the company’s Kingfisher Blue in the Andhra Pradesh market.

Andhra accounts for about 25% of the total mild beer sales in India and 15% of the strong beer segment.

“AP holds a lot of promise for the newly launched Kingfisher Blue brand and we expect to replicate the national success here, too. While Goa is not yet on our radar, we will be launching the brand in Uttar Pradesh in a couple of months,” he said.

The company, which has 30 breweries across the country, including three in Andhra Pradesh, is also looking at rolling out new products every two years.

“We are currently working on a few products based on the consumer needs and new segments. It is, however, premature to disclose the product pipeline now,” he said.

Observing that the beer market is now cluttered with the entry of foreign brands, he said the company was hopeful of maintaining its leadership in the segment with the newly launched product.

@ramanakv