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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai , May 17

IN the process of taking its mild beer brand, Sandpiper, national, McDowell Alcobev (joint venture company floated by the UB Group, the UK brewer, Scottish and Newcastle (S&N), and Mr Ravi Jain), is exploring the possibility of creating "surrogate" products.

Positioning Sandpiper as a lifestyle brand, the company considers setting up a fashion line to suit its life style image.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Ravi Jain, Managing Director, McDowell Alcobev, said, "Beer is primarily a man's drink and we could look at any lifestyle product ranging from clothes to sunglasses to suit this profile. Selling a lifestyle brand such as Sandpiper is going to be difficult and sooner or later we have been to look at these lifestyle products which would go with the brand.''

While Sandpiper is expected to have a lifestyle image being a mild beer in the company's portfolio, its strong beer brand, Zingaro, would consider surrogates in the area of snacks. Added Mr Jain, "We would possibly be looking at the namkeen market for snacks under the Zingaro brand.

In fact, the purpose is to have products which men generally consume during those few hours of drinking.''

In the past, the company has already explored surrogates for its regional brands. For instance, it has already brought in cassettes and CDs under the Marco Polo brand with remixes from films in Tamil Nadu. At the moment, it is also negotiating with Saregama for a bringing out another remix album for its Kalyani Black brand.

Currently, both Zingaro and Sandpiper's non-alcoholic malt beverages variants are used for advertising.

It has also been using in - film advertising for its brands in Tamil, Telegu and Hindi films.

The company claims that it has achieved a growth rate of 70 per cent in the last quarter and is targeting a growth rate of 100 per cent next quarter. Its market share in the beer category has also climbed to 13 per cent in the last quarter of the financial year 2003-04 as against 8 per cent the corresponding period last year.

With five breweries under its fold, the company is also looking at setting up two new greenfield breweries in Orissa and Rajasthan to brew its two leading brands. Currently, the company uses contract facilities to brew its regional brands such as Kalyani Black Label and Bullet in these States.

"We are setting up two greenfield breweries in the states of Orissa and Rajasthan. Besides, UB will also be using these breweries since it does not have manufacturing facilities in these States,'' says Mr Jain.

Earmarking an investment of Rs 70 crore towards building these two new breweries, McDowell Alcobev is hoping to beef up the presence of its two leading beer brands in these States.

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