Premium spirits player, Bacardi, is looking at acquisitions to expand its product portfolio as well as boost volumes, the firm's President and CEO Mahesh Madhavan said in a conversation with Business Standard.
The firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the largest private spirits player in the world, is currently present in such segments as white rum, vodka and flavoured alcoholic beverages. Its total volumes are in the region of 1.5 million cases.
Madhavan says the aspiration of the Indian unit is to hit the six-million-case-mark in the next few years by doubling volumes every three years. "We are targeting mainly mid to premium brands in the whisky, dark rum and brandy segments in our bid to achieve this," he says. "We are not ruling out organic growth as well by launching our own brands in these segments," he says.
The bulk of the 200-million-case IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) market, for the record, consists of dark spirits. Whisky, which is the largest, stands at 120 million cases, followed by dark rum at 40 million cases, and brandy at 20 million cases, respectively. Whisky, according to industry experts, is growing at 10 per cent annually, followed by dark rum at 15 per cent per annum, and brandy at 20 per cent per annum.
Bacardi, incidentally, will foray into the dark rum segment later this month with a new product called Bacardi Black, which comes close on the heels of the gold rum series launched by the firm earlier this year.
The spirits major has also been beefing up its product portfolio through the import route, the 47-year-old-Madhavan indicates. "We have also added sparkling wines to the list now. But all of these are typically Rs 1,000 and above for a quartz. By extending our IMFL portfolio we hope to address the mid to premium market with lower price points."
The Bacardi Black, for instance, will be priced between Rs 500 and Rs 600 for a quartz, Madhavan says. Products in its existing segments of white rum, vodka and flavoured alcoholic beverages are also priced in the same range.