ABD forays into ready-to-eat snacks market

Allied Blenders and Distillers (ABD), a leading spirits company, has forayed into the ready-to-eat snacks market.
The company, which sells various liquor brands including Officer's Choice Whiskey, has entered snacks vertical with its flagship brand - Officer's Choice Snacks.
"Officer's Choice is the market leader in the regular whiskey segment and we have leveraged the brand through line extensions like Officer's Choice Blue Whisky and Officer's Choice Black Whisky. We are now moving into the zone of brand extensions with this foray into ready to eat snacks," ABD Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Deepak Roy said.
Taking into account the complementariness of ready-to-eat snacks with alcohol and the brand equity of Officer's Choice, the company launched the ready-to-eat snacks range under the Officer's Choice brand name, he added.

Currently, the snacks range is available in around 15,000 outlets in Western Maharashtra in places like Pune, Nashik, Solapur and Kolhapur.
The company plans to expand the distribution to rest of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal and North East markets by the end of the year.

Roy said the snacks range opens up a wide range of touch points for the company to engage with consumers,
The distribution of the snacks will be carried out through various mediums including grocery stores and modern trade, he added.
"Going forward, I believe this will be a substantial revenue stream for us and will also help strengthen the overall franchise and equity of the brand," he added.

The initial range of snacks includes three variants of Potato Crisps and a variant each of Moong Daal and Masala Peanuts.