The Hindu Business Line : Southern Agrifurane eyes overseas markets

Chennai, June 28 Just a bottler until a few years ago and a owner of a slew of liquor brands now, Southern Agrifurane Industries Ltd is now looking at overseas forays which include “acquisition of a French brand that is doing extremely well in the US market”.

“We are very close to buying a French brand and a facility in France to cater to the US and Far East markets. Besides, we are in talks with some breweries in France for contract manufacturing our brands for overseas markets,” says Mr A.K.M.A. Shamsuddin, Managing Director, Southern Agrifurane, who is just back from a visit to that country.

The Rs 500-crore company of the Rs 1,500-crore MGM group of Chennai owns ‘MGM Vodka’, Gold Crown and Classic Fine (whisky) and a dozen other IMFL brands. It has two facilities in Villupuram (Tamil Nadu) and Hyderabad.

In the first phase, SAFL plans a Rs 60-crore investment to more than triple its distillery (both primary and secondary) capacity from the present 20 klpd (kilo litre per day) to 70 klpd and its bottling capacity from 3.1 lakh cases per month to 10 lakh, Mr Shamsuddin told Business Line.

On the company’s domestic expansion plans, he said, “We have now entered into marketing tie-ups to take our brands to Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, and similar arrangements will be made for other geographies too.”

While admitting that SAFL is a small player in the Indian liquor market with monthly depletion (sales) of 900-lakh-cases, he said, the company is a dominant player in the 4-lakh-cases-a-month Tamil Nadu vodka market with 75 per cent share — a market where major national players including Guinness UDV (Smirnoff) and UB (Ramanov and White Mischief) are active.

According to him, last year, the company’s share in the vodka segment grew at 120 per cent against the 20 per cent market growth.

It recently launched its vodka brand in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and is set to launch in Kerala soon.

Enhancing profile

To enhance its profile in the market, SAFL is working on introducing a slew of high-end brands to cater to the premium segment and is in the process of phasing out low-end brands from its portfolio in a staggered manner.

“This is purely in order to protect the company’s long-term interests,” says Mr Shamsuddin.