Bacardi to increase production as rum, Scotch fly off the shelf

In India, the world’s largest privately held spirits company sells Dewar’s Scotch Whiskey, William Lawson Blended Scotch Whisky, and Aberfeldy Single Malt, as well as premium vodka and gin brands such as Gray Goose and Bombay Sapphire.

“Business is coming back, and that’s what’s encouraging us to invest in manufacturing capacity. Sanjit Singh Randhawa, Managing Director, Bacardi India Pvt Ltd said, “We are already looking to expand our manufacturing capacity, open new plants in India in different states or even upgrade our capabilities at some of our plants. are talking.

The Bermuda-based firm’s local arm plans to more than quadruple its Indian business revenue by 2030. Bacardi, which entered the Indian spirits market in 1996, works with several large contractors, with production spread across 10 plants.

Randhawa said the company is planning to increase the capacity through such third party contractors in eastern India. He said there is “demand” in that market, and Bacardi wants to be more “efficient” at meeting that demand.

“I can’t give you a number on investments. Now we’re operating in about 10 plants across the country. We’ll probably add another plant by early next year. And then maybe in the middle or end of next year, We will add one more,” Randhawa said over phone.

Capacity expansion is an ongoing process for the spirits maker as the company strives to be closer to states where demand is high.

“We have consolidated and added capacity in Maharashtra, through the pandemic. We were operating from two small plants in Nagpur. We shifted everything to a bigger facility in Nashik. We commissioned a plant in Uttar Pradesh in early 2020. It’s already tracking one and a half times more than what we had imagined for us.”

India is a predominantly whiskey drinking country, led by companies such as Diageo and homegrown Allied Blenders and Distillers. He said Bacardi’s ambition for 2030 is to grow its business five times compared to 2020.

Currently, India is one of the top 10 markets for Bacardi globally among emerging and developed markets. India is in the top five among emerging markets along with Russia, Brazil, China and South Africa. “India will be ranked as number one or number two in terms of priorities for business in emerging markets,” he said.

Bacardi operates in the mid-to-premium spirits market, where it competes with larger rival Diageo, which sells Captain Morgan rum, among others. Other richly priced rums include Old Monk and Jolly Rogers. Randhawa said the company can bring new brands into the country from the global portfolio. For example, expanding flavored rum could be one direction and selling more expensive dark rum would be another, he said.

Over the past few quarters, the company has introduced more prized rums to the country—Bacardi Ocho, an eight-year-old rum, in addition to the Bacardi Cuatro and Bacardi Dies rums.

Following the increasing consumer interest in the White Spirit category, the limited edition Bombay Sapphire may soon hit the market.

Randhawa said the last financial year was a “challenging” period for the country’s large alcoholic beverages market.

With the bar temporarily closed, consumption went home.

However, demand picked up in the current financial year.

“A lot of this is driven by our venture in whiskey—Dewar and William Lawson. We are very pleased with the way our bold bet on whiskey has worked for us.”

Bacardi India’s net sales touched ₹9727 crore in FY20, up 19% from a year ago, according to data accessed by business intelligence platform Toffler.

Volume increased 15% to reach 5.7 million cases.

Volumes of Bacardi rums, including Bacardi Carta Blanca Rum, Bacardi Flavored Rum and Bacardi Black Rum, grew 45% compared to last year, with Bacardi Black Rum alone crossing 1 million cases. India is the No. 2 market for Bacardi Rum globally.