Kyndal India Group, an importer, maker and distributor of premium spirits, has lined up three offering for the Indian market this financial year. These include bootz brandy, bootz rum and bols premium brandy.

The group, which included BOLS Kyndal Ltd and Kyndal India Ltd, is also planning to expand into northern markets, from its traditional base of South India, according to Mr Siddharth Banerjee, Managing Director of the Group.

The company has obtained capacities in three distilleries, two in Tamil Nadu and one in Karnataka to meet its demands for the country. It does not intend to invest in own distillery at present, but will scale up manufacturing capacities at existing ones said Mr Banerjee.

“Since we are in the premium segment of the spirits we do not need large capacities for operations. Our investments are driven towards brand-building and marketing, which is substantially growing,” he told Business Line here.

Kyndal India launched its India-bottled grape brandy called Bols in 2009, creating a new segment. Till then brandy was mostly molasses-based in India or flavoured. Today, Tamil Nadu, which is the biggest market has 13 players, he said. The Gurgoan-based company sold around 300,000 cases last fiscal, growing from 50,000 during fiscal 2009-10. South is the biggest market, he added. The company had entered into a joint venture agreement with Amsterdam-based Lucas Bols BV to bottle and market the latter’s range of brands. Bols brandy is the oldest existing brand coming from Netherlands with over 400 years history. Kyndal India has also brought in famous brands such as absolute Vodka, Jim Bean, Whyte & Mackay and Remy Cointreau into the Indian market, he said.

soma@thehindu.co.in

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