The Hindu Business Line : Khoday Group to shift bottling plants to Khoday India

The $1-billion Khoday Group has decided to transfer all its 10 bottling plants to its listed company Khoday India, and is in talks with Mohan Meakins for a contract brewery arrangement.

Khoday India is also planning to set up between four and five green field breweries across the country with a capacity of 2 million cases (12 bottles of 650 ml each) each, Khoday India Chief Operating Officer, Mr Satpal Chaudhry, told Business Line. He said all the bottling plants are now part of several group companies, and hence, bringing them under a listed company would help it to synergise their operations and manage them better.

Premium brand launch

Later talking to newspersons after launching the company’s premium whisky brand, Red Knight, Group Managing Director, Mr L. Srihari Khoday, said that the group will invest over Rs 1,000 crore to expand its various entities as well as acquire a few companies. It is also considering various options for raising these funds, including a rights’ issue by Khoday India Ltd.

Capacity additions

Khoday India has already announced that it will invest around Rs 200 crore next year for capacity additions as well as modernisation of its plants. It expects its revenues to double this fiscal to around Rs 240 crore from its liquor business.

Mr Chaudhry said the company expects to sell about 1.6 million cases of all its brands during the current fiscal. He said the company plans to launch more brands in the premium segment, especially in the brandy category. “We see a huge opportunity in the premium category because it has been growing rapidly,” he added.