Sale of Indian beer in the British market is levelling off after an early fizz, market managers say.
The story of Indian beer in Britain had generated much excitement over the past two years. But as Indian beer enters its third summer of testing the British market with its new ambitions, expectations are more sober.
Indian beer makers in Britain had announced they were seeking to push their product beyond the Indian restaurant market into mainstream retail. But it has remained so far largely an ethnic accompaniment to Indian food.
Kingfisher manufactured by United Breweries remains the best-seller among Indian beers, closely followed by Cobra. Attempts to push both these beers into mainstream retail have met limited success.
The success has been limited in real numbers and in relation to expectations, market sources say.
On the Indian restaurant scene too, the Indian beers have been unable to dislodge Carlsberg, which continues to enjoy about two-thirds of the share of this market. The Indian restaurant market remains the backbone of the success of Kingfisher and Cobra, the two serious success stories so far. There are more than 8,000 Indian restaurants across Britain. Britain spends about $4 billion a year on Indian food, and beer makers have been thirsting to drink to that success.
But the big market out there has shown little taste for Indian beer. Britain drinks about a billion cases of beer a year, of which about six million cases (0.6 per cent) are estimated to be consumed in Indian restaurants.
But with Carlsberg taking away two-thirds of that, and beers like Heineken also being popular, Indian beer sells less than a million cases a year in Indian restaurants. In terms of litres, Britain drinks up 102 litres of beer per person a year -- six billion litres or so a year.
A share of a few million litres in that makes for a large sale but in proportion to the market, it is a tiny fraction. Many Indian beer makers have come into the British market like what one distributor called "one-container wonders." But in proportion to the British market, even the successful Indian beers have remained only little wonders.
Two years ago the media excitement in India was about the Kama Sutra beer launched by a non-resident Indian (NRI), Umesh Parmar. The beer was marketed predictably with a picture of an amorous couple on the bottle label. And it was marketed with some of the expected slogans about its "pleasurable sensation" and its "unique position."
Parmar's beer was backed by his company's distribution network, the stumbling block for many beer makers who have tried to push beer imported from India into the British market. But Kama Sutra has not made the kind of impact in the mainstream in tune with its expectations.
Three of the Indian beers have been placed in the large supermarket stores, an expensive investment given high charges for just placing new products on shelves. Kingfisher is being marketed through a chain of Sainsburys stores. Cobra was pushed through several Tesco and Waitrose supermarket stores. The new Kama Sutra is being sold through the Asda supermarket chain.(IANS)
Most Indian beer companies have not sought to tap the much larger market in the rest of Europe. To Britain's per capita consumption of 102 litres, the Czechs drink 160 litres a year. Germany is next at 138 litres per head, but cumulatively it is the largest beer market in the world with its 75 million population.(IANS)
Denmark, Austria, Ireland and Belgium all drink more per capita than Britain which stands seventh. Kama Sutra claims successes in the European market, but authentic sale figures are hard to come by.
Indian restaurants do not provide the kind of backing to Indian beer in Europe as they do in Britain. There are only a few hundred in France, Holland and Germany. More are opening up in Italy, but continental Europeans have not adopted Indian food the way the British have.
Brian Dozey, who markets Kingfisher, says sales are "getting pretty huge in Europe." Kingfisher is still searching for market outlets through a network of distributors.
The only Indian beers to have succeeded in Britain are the "Indian" beers not made in India. Kingfisher, Cobra and Kama Sutra are all brewed in Britain. Karan Billimoria claims an "authentic Indian recipe" for his Cobra beer. But where the difference in water within a few miles can make all the difference to the taste, the Cobra made in Britain is not the Cobra that was earlier imported into Britain.
Indian beer in Britain is NRI beer: not quite Indian, and not quite British either.
