Carlsberg, a Denmark-based liquor company, is expecting a 40 per cent rise in its sales volumes in India in the current financial year.
Market share of Carlsberg, which forayed into the domestic market in 2007, has grown from 4.3 per cent in 2010 to 6.1 per cent share on Thursday, Carlsberg India managing director, Soren Lauridsen, said, adding that the company expected a similar growth to continue over the years.
“The Indian beer industry is currently pegged at 80 million hectolitre and is growing at about 10 per cent year-on-year. The market is bright for the beer industry, irrespective of some restrictions in some markets,” he said.
Meanwhile, Carlsberg is scouting for a new location to set up its sixth brewery in the country. It currently has breweries in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Its AP brewery, which has one million hectolitre capacity, also supplies to Kerala and Karnataka.
“In the last two months, we have seen full capacity utilisation at our existing breweries. To meet our future demands, we are scouting for a new location across the states where we are not present to set up the brewery. Nothing has been finalised yet,” he said, adding that investment of around $35 million (approximately Rs 175 crore) was required to set up a brewery with half-a-million hectolitre capacity.
Launching the new packaging of its Tuborg Strong beer brand, Lauridsen said, Andhra Pradesh was the biggest market for Carlsberg India, where it had an eight per cent market share. “The new packaging and labelling of Tuborg Strong would push the sales further,” he added.
