The Hindu Business Line : Shaw Wallace Breweries to tap draught beer market

SHAW Wallace Breweries Ltd (SWBL), managed by the global brewing giant SABMiller, is poised to foray into the draught beer market shortly. It is finalising plans to extend Castle Lager and Royal Challenge brands into the diminutive domestic draught beer business, the company officials said.

The maiden entry into the draught beer market will be in Bangalore. The city accounts for sizeable share of the draught beer sales in the country with Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh being the other key markets. "We will be in draught beer very shortly, under Castle and Royal Challenge brands," the company sources said.

Currently, United Breweries Ltd's Kingfisher brand dominates the domestic draught beer market, which is less than 3 per cent of the total beer consumption. Its plants in Ludhiana, Taloja (near Mumbai), Bangalore, Mangalore and Chennai are equipped to supply draught beer at present.

It is learnt that SWBL's Skol Breweries near Mumbai and Mysore Breweries in Bangalore have capabilities to service draught beer segment. Apart from these, the other smaller independent brewing groups with draught beer facilities include Mount Shivalik's plant in Chandigarh and Mohan Breweries & Distilleries Ltd's unit in Chennai.

SWBL sources said the company would own and supply the beer dispensing machines to the on-premise consumption outlets, in a bid to ensure regular cleaning and servicing of the beer dispensing heads.

"We will strictly control cleaning of the dispensing machines from the hygiene point of view, which is very important," the company sources said.

In the bottled beer segment, SABMiller's international brand, Castle Lager, occupies a semi-premium positioning in terms of pricing. It is not clear whether it would carry the pricing advantage into the draught beer segment as well.

SWBL, which accounts for over 35 per cent of the domestic beer consumption, is an equal joint venture between SABMiller and Shaw Wallace & Co with the former in the management seat. SABMiller is finalising a deal to buyout SWC's stake from the Dubai-based Jumbo Group, and an announcement could be expected in the coming weeks.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Confounding corporate governance

Welspun, Glofame merger complete

Betts India to start production in HP facility from July

Indian Oil plans to expand to African markets

Ministry to digitise data on companies

RoC asked to issue notice to Reliance cos

Zydus ties up with Australian co for cancer drugs

Jain Irrigation, Taiyo Kagaku sign deal for frozen foods

`Competition policy implementation subject to States' cooperation'

Hindoostan Spinning pays Rs 3-cr dues to workers

Shaw Wallace Breweries to tap draught beer market

Godrej Consumer looking at buys in FMCG business