The Hindu Business Line : `Old Monk dips for 3rd successive year'

THE rum brand Old Monk continued its sales slide for the third successive year, according to Impact International, the New York-based digest of the drinks industry.

The brand, which is owned by Mohan Meakins Ltd and enjoys almost a cult status in the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) business, saw sales decline by 3.5 per cent in 2004.

The March issue of Impact International has pegged Old Monk's 2004 sales at seven million cases, down from 7.2 million in the previous year. In the process, Old Monk lost its status as the largest individual brand in the IMFL industry to UB's Bagpiper Whisky, which closed 2004 with sales of 7.3 million cases, up from 6.5 million in the previous year. Old Monk has been reporting a continuous slide since 2002 when it dropped from 8.2 million to 7.8 million cases, according to Impact.

Old Monk is the third largest selling rum in the world after Bacardi (20.3 million) and Tanduay (14 million) and is the only brand among the top five rums in the world to lose steam. Diageo's Captain Morgan (5.6 million) comes fourth, while UB's No.1 Celebration Rum is the fifth largest (4.9 million). In fact, Celebration Rum, which is the main challenger to Old Monk in the domestic market, has been reporting robust growth, with sales recording a 12.6 per cent jump in 2004. According to Impact, this UB brand leaped from 2.7 million cases by reporting a rise of 22 per cent and 24 per cent in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Old Monk is widely perceived as a recruit brand for consumers upgrading to hard drinks and also enjoys tremendous clout in the canteen stores department channel meant for the armed forces. Old Monk's setbacks in recent times are being attributed to the lack of efforts to shore up its sagging brand equity in changing times, industry sources said.

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