The country's largest liquor maker, United Spirits, is planning to sell one crore cases of its premium whisky brand Royal Challenge over the next decade.
After rebranding and relaunching Royal Challenge, the company is targeting young customers and utilising platforms like the T20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League and Formula 1 racing to sell the brand.
"Our objective is to take our brand (Royal Challenge) to 10 million cases in the next 10 years. It is the 10 by 10 programme which we are embarking on," United Spirits Business Head Debashish Shyam told PTI.
He said the firm had finished rebranding and the image makeover exercise of Royal Challenge.
Asked about the investment for the campaign, he said, "It will go up significantly."
Speaking about the brand, he said Royal Challenge is a market leader in premium whisky, priced at Rs 500-600 per 750 ml bottle in different markets, and it is very difficult to sell volumes in this segment.
When asked about rival brands, he said Blenders Pride from Seagram's is the nearest competitor of Royal Challenge in the segment.
If United Spirits is able to achieve a sale of 10 million cases for Royal Challenge, then it would be the third from United Spirits' portfolio to cross the milestone. Other two brands from the liquor maker's portfolio which crossed 10 million mark are, Bagpiper and McDowell's No 1.
"There is no brand in the premium whisky segment, which is any where close to this mark but in semi-premium segment, two of our brands -- Bagpiper and Mcdowell's No 1 -- have already crossed this mark," Shyam said.
He said the Royal Challenge brand holds a 36 % share of the premium whiskey market in India, which is estimated to be around 4.5 to 5 million cases.
"This fiscal we hope to gain another four %," he said while adding, the company has also taken up a large scale marketing initiative to promote the sales and has signed sponsorship agreement with four IPL teams -- Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab.
