India: Guinness beer is coming to India
Guinness beer is preparing to take on the might of Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher and SABMiller’s Castle Lager, Telegraph India posted on September 20. Guinness beer is the dark frothy ale whose origins date back to December 1759 when a 30-year-old Arthur Guinness took Mark Rainsford’s Ale Brewery in Dublin on a 9,000-year lease.
Guinness beer belongs to Diageo, the world’s largest beer, wine and spirits company that was formed in 1997 with the merger of one-time arch rivals Guinness Plc and Grand Metropolitan Plc.
In 2005, Diageo’s turnover was over £9 billion.
Guinness beer is famous for its distinctive flavour that it derives from the roasted barley which remains unfermented. For many years a portion of the beer was aged to give a sharp lactic flavour, but Guinness have refused to confirm if this still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of a nitrogen mix being added during the serving process.
In India, Diageo is better known for its celebrated Johnnie Walker scotch whisky and Smirnoff vodka. But it will now have its finger in every pie — from beer to wine and even IMFL, which it had exited few years ago.
To start with, the company will launch its Irish beer, Guinness, in the local market next quarter.
It will be followed by Captain Morgan, a rum brand from its international portfolio, and Don Hulio, a tequila brand. They are poised for launch in the first quarter of 2007.
In between, the company is also trying to catch up with the growing consumption in the wine segment with three brands.
“We want to be the reference points for wine drinking in the country,” said Asif Adil, managing director of Diageo – India and Southeast Asia. Incidentally, the company is already the largest importer of wine in India.
Adil said Diageo was finetuning its strategy on the Guinness launch. The first rollout will be in premium hotels and high-end restaurants.
Later, it will be marketed through retail stores as well. “It is going to be a premium product and will be priced accordingly. It will be entirely imported,” Adil said.
The beer market is now dominated by the Kingfisher brand of UB group. The premium Australian beer Foster’s failed in the local market and was recently acquired by SABMiller.
Adil, who was in Calcutta to launch a bottled-in-India prestige segment vodka Shark Tooth, said Diageo would not venture into IMFL itself but leave it to the 50:50 joint venture with Radico Khaitan.
“That joint venture is exclusively for the brown spirit — rum and whisky — market. We are developing products in that company and will be launching several of them next year,” he said.
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