Cobra Beer to launch wines

UK-headquartered Cobra Beer, which launched its strong beer 'King Cobra' in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, will be launching wines in India by the end of this year.

Chief operating officer of Cobra Indian Beer Private Limited (CIBPL), Poonam Chandel, said the company was looking at initial volumes of 15,000 cases to be scaled up to at least 50,000 cases per annum by 2008-09. The wines, to be bottled in Maharashtra, would be priced between Rs 200 and Rs 450 per bottle.

Chandel told mediapersons that Cobra Beer sales in the country was growing at 600 per cent per annum and had crossed one million cases in the last two years. The company expects to post a turnover of Rs 100 crore as against Rs 20 crore last year.

CIBPL chief executive officer, Perses Bilimoria, said the company would be setting up two breweries, one each in Punjab and AP, at a cost of $20 million.