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Indian single malts reshape estimated $33 billion spirits market
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Pernod and Diageo launch Indian whiskies as brands expand
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Global Prizes, Wealth and COVID Brakes Spur the Boom
By Arpan Chaturvedi, Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra
INDRI, India, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Oak barrels once used to store bourbon and wine are piling up at a distillery near New Delhi, filled with aged whiskey as staff recently churn out about 10,000 bottles a day of India’s Indri single malt. named the whiskey of the world.
Sugarcane and mustard fields, not peat bogs, ring the distillery, where the two-year-old Indian brand’s owner Piccadily is ramping up production and building a three-hole golf course to lure connoisseurs and tipplers in the whisky-loving nation.
As India asserts itself as a producer, just a consumer, of whiskey, its single malts are reshaping the country’s $33 billion spirits market.
Established global brands such as Glenlivet, made through France’s Pernod Ricard, and Talisker, through Britain’s Diageo, are battling for position with local rivals Indri, Amrut and Radico Khaitan’s Rampur.
Unlike many Asian countries where beer dominates alcohol sales, India is predominantly a whisky-drinking nation. Global awards, increased affluence and a mass of drinkers trying new brands while cooped up during COVID-19 have rocked India’s whisky landscape, industry executives and analysts say.
Aditya Prakash Rao has been drinking foreign brands for years, but now he buys more and more Indian malts for himself and to give away during the Christmas season.
Indian whiskey provides Rao with a sense of national pride and pairs well with Indian cuisine, the lawyer said. “There’s nothing better than Indian malts to accompany our food, which is spicy. I love it. “
Indri’s Diwali collector’s edition, valued at $421, won the “Best in Show” award at the Whiskys of the World Awards blind tasting held in San Francisco in August, beating out its Scottish and American rivals.
Reacting to the Indian drinks trend, global brands that have focused on Scotland’s pure malts are turning to Indian whiskies to take advantage of the boom in one of the world’s largest whisky markets.
Featuring stars from Bollywood and Indian music, Pernod on Wednesday uncorked its first single malt whiskey made in India, the $48 Longitude 77, with plans to expand to Dubai and then the rest of the world.
“We’re positive about this category. It has experienced unprecedented growth,” said Kartik Mohindra, Chief Marketing Officer, Pernod India.
“CATEGORY OF THE FUTURE”
Diageo, Pernod’s biggest rival, last year introduced its first Indian single malt, Godawan — named after an endangered giant Indian bird — which is sold in five markets plus the United States.
“We’re going to move from Indian whisky to Indian whisky, in India and around the world,” said Vikram Damodaran, Diageo’s lead chief innovation officer in India.
Pernod’s Glenlivet, long the best-selling single malt in India, grew 39% in volume last year but was dethroned by Amrut, which rose 183%, according to Euromonitor data.
Indian single malts increased by 144% in 2021-2022, outpacing the 32% growth of Scotch whisky, according to data from IWSR’s beverage market analysis. Over the period to 2027, he predicts, Indian malt consumption is expected to grow by 13% year-on-year, up to 8% for Scotch whisky.
Piccadily Distilleries, maker of Indri, expects to increase its capacity by 66% to 20,000 liters (5,300 gallons) per day by 2025, beyond the 18 markets that account for 30% of its sales, founder Siddhartha Sharma said.
It plans to double the number of casks to 100,000 at the sprawling distillery in a farm belt 160 km (100 miles) north of India’s capital.
Cheap local brands: Indri starts at $37 a bottle, Amrut $42 and Rampur $66 at retail outlets near New Delhi. By comparison, Pernod’s Glenlivet sells for between $40 and $118, depending on age.
At the launch of Longitude 77, Pernod served CEOs, diplomats, celebrity chefs and other visitors the new single malt and cocktails made from it, paired with local ingredients such as Kashmiri saffron and Alphonso mangoes.
Radico expects Rampur’s sales to double each year and will focus more on expanding the domestic market, where sales account for 75 percent of its business, said Sanjeev Banga, president of foreign affairs.
The most important thing for the category, he said, “is that Diageo and Pernod will offer a single Indian malt. “
“Otherwise, they were just talking about their major foreign brands,” Banga says. “They realize it’s a category of the future. “(Reporting by Arpan Chatruvedi and Aditi Shah in Indri, Haryana and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; editing by Mark Heinrich)