International liquor major South African Breweries (SAB) India is exploring the possibility of launching beer-like alcoholic fruit beverages in the country, according to Vinod Giri, head of marketing, SAB.
Alcoholic fruit beverages contain mild alcohol and is similar to carbonated fruit drinks.
The company is planning to launch its global brands in this category, which includes Redds, Solantis, by end-March 2001. It is also looking at a range of businesses around this category.
Also Read
According to industry sources, alcoholic fruit drinks as a concept is new to Indians and will take years to develop the market.
As part of its expansion plans, Giri said, "SAB will be also launching its global beer brand Castle Lager targeted at the premium segment soon." It recently introduced its first international beer brand Three Lions in the market.
At the national level, the company will be focusing on brands such as Knockout, Three Lions and Castle. Knockout, which came under its fold following the takeover of Bangalore-based Mysore Breweries.
Mysore Breweries' other brands include Bengal Lager, Pals, Seven Star, Palisades and MBL Lager which will remain as a regional player in the south. While, the takeover of Narang Breweries gave the company two other local beer brands Continental and Tipsy 10,000, which has a strong presence in the north.
SAB's main objective is to make strategic investments in India's breweries sector. This is in line with its game plan of investing in fast growing markets and which offers substantial opportunities for future expansion. India, which has a population of over one billion and low per capita beer consumption, offers significant growth potential.
"Unless it has a national presence with sufficient manufacturing capacity, it will not be possible for the company to garner the share it is looking at," said industry sources. The $5 billion SAB is one of world's leading brewers with operations in 22 countries.
SAB has three breweries in Aurangabad, Bangalore and Uttar Pradesh and will be setting up a fourth unit in Andhra Pradesh, the fastest growing beer market. It will invest around Rs 50 crore and will have a capacity of 2 lakh hecto litre.
SAB is one of the companies in the running for a 26 per cent stake in Vijay Mallya's United Breweries. The company would like to be "positively aggressive" about its acquisitions in India and is aiming to capture 40 per cent share of the 70 million-odd case beer market.