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United Spirits Ltd (USL) has taken the distillery facility of KBD Sugars and Distilleries on management lease to operate, manufacture and bottle whisky in Hubli.
“Our new facility at Hubli is to serve popular United Spirits Ltd's brands in north Karnataka market. This facility has been fitted with Tetra Pak packaging and bottling,” Mr Philip A.B. Sargunar, Chief Operating Officer, United Spirits Ltd, told Business Line .
“The Hubli unit will be the fifth facility in the State and this takes the company's Tetra Pak capacity to 8.5 lakh cases (one case contains 48 cartons of 180 ml) per month,” he added.
For the north Karnataka market, the company is planning to initially launch popular brands such as Bagpiper Whiskey, Old Tavern Whiskey, Old Castle Rum and Hayward's Cheers Whiskey.
United Spirits Ltd is initially planning to run the facility with a capacity of two lakh cases per month and gradually scale up to 5 lakh cases.
Mr Sargunar said, “We are going in for initial run of 1.5 lakh cases (one case of 48 packs in 180 ml) of cartons and 50,000 cases in 90 ml bottles and gradually scale up the capacity to meet the market needs.”
“It is the company's deliberate strategy to go in for Tetra Pak (packaging) to offer customers factory fresh products, maintain blend quality and eliminate tampering of bottles,” he added.
Mr D.K. Adikesavulu, who owns KBD Sugars and Distilleries, said, “We have created this facility for United Spirits Ltd by investing Rs 25 crore. The land for the bottling unit is ours. We were running an arrack bottling plant in Hubli. After the plant was shut many years ago, we modernised it to facilitate whisky bottling.”
“For the facility, we have invested in Tetra Pak machines imported from Sweden. The facility which commenced production from today, will cater to the markets of Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad and other north Karnataka towns and cities,” he added.
For this facility, KBD Sugars and Distilleries has hired 250 local people mostly women. Most of them were earlier employed by the company's arrack bottling unit. When this plant goes on full capacity can employ 450 to 500 people.
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