UK: Cobra Beer forecasts retail revenue of 150 mln pounds in 2007

Cobra Beer, the fast-growing UK brewer, expects retail revenues of 150 million pounds ($295 million) for fiscal year 2007, up 56 percent over 2006, the founder and chief executive officer Lord Karan Bilimoria said on Thursday, according to Reuters, February 2.

Bilimoria said retail revenues for the privately held company were already running at 130 million pounds for the current fiscal year ending in July.

"At the end of 2006 revenues from retail sales were 96 million pounds. They are now running at 130 million and by the end of fiscal year 2007 are likely to hit 150 million," Bilimoria told Reuters in an interview.

Bilimoria said the company would decide by mid-2009 on whether to issue stock in the company.

"We'll know by July 2009 whether we issue shares, enter a joint venture or get bought by a larger brewer," he said.

Cobra began its operations in Bangalore, India in 1990 but eventually pulled out in 1997 due to quality problems.

"Then when I saw India was taking off five years ago, I said it was time to go back to India. It was always my dream to sell Cobra in India for India," he later told investors at an Indian business conference sponsored by the Economist.

Bilimoria is also the chairman of the Indo British Partnership Network which promotes bilateral trade between India and Britain.

The company re-started production in India two years ago after a seven year absence.

"We have production in Rajasthan and Goa and will begin brewing in two more places in the next two months. One is in the north of India and a second production facility in the east," Bilimoria said, while declining to name the exact locations.

"Two more license agreements are in the pipeline and we will decide on a greenfield production facility, either in Hyderabad or in the north which will make 5 million bottles annually. This greenfield operation should break ground in June," he said, adding the new facility would be able to expand.

Bilimoria said that sales in India, albeit from a small base, rose 250 percent between November and January.

"This is the pace at which things can happen," he said.

Bilimoria said he saw the Indian beer market growing 25 to 30 times over the next 20 years.

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