India: United Breweries plans to bring Kronenbourg Blanc into the country

United Breweries (UB) has recently announced it has plans to bring Kronenbourg Blanc, a Scottish & Newcastle brand, into the country mid-next year.

The Chairman of UB group, Mr Vijay Mallya, has made the announcement at an analysts' conference in London last week, according to sources. Mr Mallya said the brand aims at wooing women drinkers in the country who have not been traditional `drinkers.'

Kronenbourg Blanc, a fruity, white beer, is expected to be the right product to target the female consumer in India and get them into the drink category.

Mr Kalyan Ganguly, President, Breweries Division, UB group, told Business Line that both Kronenbourg Blanc and Kronenbourg 1664 would be brought into the country, but the `course of action' would be decided in the next couple of months. "It would be a unique and promising launch from the S&N portfolio," he said.

Though Kronenbourg, a white and citrus flavoured beer, has generally appealed to women in Europe, it need not be restricted to women consumers here, he felt.

Sources in the industry said that Mr Mallya had made clear his intentions of bringing Kronenbourg into the country just after UB entered into a strategic alliance with S&N in December last year.

A Dow Jones report of the analysts' conference quotes Mr John Hunt, MD of S&N's Asian operations, saying he doesn't expect huge growth for the brand in India, but the company is carrying out market testing at the moment with a view to launching by the middle of next year. Scottish & Newcastle has a 37.5 % stake in UB's brewing business.

The beer market in the country currently sells around 100 million cases and is growing at eight per cent per annum. UB currently controls about 50 per cent of the beer market in the country with Kingfisher as its flagship brand.

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