A toast to America

Jim Beam will become the second American whisky to enter the Indian market.

That gentleman from Tennessee, Jack Daniels, is going to get a bit of competition beginning August when he's joined by Jim Beam.

The well-known bourbon brand is being launched in India by Beam Global Spirits & Wines, the fourth-largest spirits company in the world which boasts nine of the top 100 premium spirits in its portfolio.

This follows the launch last year of tequila brand Sauza, also distributed by the same company. Also on its roster are Laphroaig whisky and the country's premier Teacher's 50 and Highland Cream blended scotches bottled in India.

"Bottled-in-India was the huge leg-up in India that made the prices of imported spirits affordable," says Harish Moolchandani, CEO and managing director for the brand for the Indian subcontinent.

Teacher's, initially an Allied Domecq brand, was taken over by Jim Beam Brands after the international split between Allied and Seagram's, as part of an international settlement.

And Jim Beam will formally become the second American liquor company after Brown Forman (that imports Jack Daniels) to enter the Indian market.

With Teacher's being a market leader in its segment, the company is already looking at a Rs 100 crore turnover this calendar year, not including duty free sales (which should see a huge jump following airport privatisation in Delhi and Mumbai).

"We're in the seeding stage with our tequila and bourbon," says Moolchandani, "but in the investing stage with Teacher's."

Teacher's has been promoted through the surrogate Teacher's Achievement Awards as a marketing ploy, for which it spent 25-30 per cent of its overall sales in India, and the company is now hoping to take its outlet promotions to mini-metros.

Sauza, the tequila brand, on the other hand, a far smaller category, will witness bar promotions (the imported tequila market is growing at 30 per cent annually), while Moolchandani is already targeting the youth for Jim Beam. "Bourbon has a more youthful image than scotch," says Moolchandani.

What about competition from Jack Daniels? "That isn't bourbon, it's Tennessee whisky," says Moolchandani.

Amrit Kiran Singh, who heads Brown Forman in the country, and points out that Jack Daniels least year was the fastest growing imported liquor brand in the country, says: "We created the first non-scotch imported whisky brand in the country, and are happy that another American whisky will increase the size of the segment."

For the record, Sauza sells in Delhi for Rs 2,100 (gold) and Rs 2,100 (silver), Teacher's retails at Rs 950 (Highland Cream) and Rs 1,200 (Teacher's 50). Jack Daniels is priced at Rs 3,000 in Delhi, while Jim Beam is expected to position itself in the Rs 1,700-1,800 market, with Jim Beam Black priced around Rs 2,500.

But what Moolchandani's company should also consider is importing DeKuyper cordials as replacement for the (over-sweet) Rose's brand on which India has unfairly subsisted for several decades. Now that would be something.