The Hindu Business Line : Amrut Distilleries to export single-malt whisky to UK

This is perhaps the first ever attempt by any Indian company to position its single malt whisky in Scotland. At the back of the enterprising business is the Bangalore-based Amrut Distilleries (Jagdale Group), which, after intense research of over five years and with the assistance of a Scottish company, Tatlock & Thomson, achieved the quality and characteristics of the malt made from India-grown barley.

Connoisseurs at a sample tasting in one of the famous bars, Pot Still in Glasgow, which boasts of serving over 100 varieties of single malt, gave the ultimate encouragement to Mr Rakshit's experiment with marketing single malt in the bastion of the product. It had been compared with the famous `Speyside' single malt, one of four regions reputed for Scotch and prestigious single malt in Scotland. Drawing its name from the Scottish river Spey, whose water is key to the Scotch whisky's speciality taste, Speyside enjoys a reputation like France for champagne.

The success of the Indian single malt was an unexpected fallout of a concept paper prepared by Mr Rakshit N. Jagdale, a student of MBA in the UK and later the executive director of Amrut Distilleries. Little did he imagine that the concept paper would provide a breakthrough in carving a niche out of his family business of liquor. Single malt by definition had to conform to the EU standards of having been processed from one single distillery and the malt extracted from a single cereal.

Talking to Business Line, Mr Rakshit said Amrut has tied up with Premier Scotch Whisky Company of Scotland to market it in UK and would also be exporting to the US. It would ship its first consignment of 1,500 cases in March to Glasgow, also known as `Curry Capital' of Britain. The product would be targeted at more than 20,000 `curry 'n beer' Indian restaurants in Britain, popular hangouts for connoisseurs of food and drinks.

Amrut's single malt would be priced at £20 per bottle. "This will position our brand at an affordable range for even the consumers of Scotch and will also enable us to covet a premium position to be able to justify the uniqueness of the product," Mr Rakshit said.

"It is a challenge for us to establish our product in the market there. After all we have to compete, what with our exposure in the liquor business for only 50 years against Scotland's 400-year-old industry," said Mr Neelkanta Rao R. Jagdale, Managing Director.

Mr Rao stressed that Amrut was promoting only the single malt whisky, not Scotch (which is exclusive/proprietary to Scotland) as some reports in the media mentioned.

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