India: Irish whiskey emerges as the fastest-growing spirit in India

Indians are slowly starting to develop a taste bud for whiskies that go beyond the traditional and affordable IMFL (India made foreign liquor) and the aspirational scotch, the Times of India reported on February 26.

Irish whiskey has emerged as the fastest-growing spirit in India, albeit from a very low base. The sales of these whiskies, dominated in India almost wholly by Pernod Ricard’s Jameson, is expected to rise to 50,000 cases (of 9 litres each) this year from just 5,000 in 2014, data from research firm IWSR show. That is a staggering CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 60%, compared to 12% for scotch and 4% for traditional whiskies.

“The Irish Whiskey category has been growing steadily over the past few years in India like the rest of the world. It reflects the evolving palette amongst the younger drinking audience and their global exposure. People today want to experiment with what they are consuming and try newer brands and products,” said Sachin Mehta, country director of premium spirits company William Grant & Sons.

While scotch is double distilled and made entirely from malted barley, Irish whiskey is triple distilled and is more likely to be made of a combination of grains and not just barley. This, brewers say, gives Irish whiskey a more smooth and light taste, against the more robust and bold flavour of scotch.

Irish whiskey is still less than 1% of the Indian whiskey volumes. And only 34,000 cases, out of the 10.6 million globally, were imported to India in 2018, the Irish Whiskey Association (IWA) told TOI.

“If Irish whiskey were to achieve even a minuscule percentage of (India’s) market share, this would translate into a significant volume of sales. It is for this reason that Irish whiskey producers are looking to markets such as India as new growth engines,” William Lavelle, head of the association, said.

Jameson is a near monopoly in the Indian market currently, dwarfing other imported brands such as Bushmills, previously owned by Diageo. William Grant, popular for its single malt Glenfiddich, counts Irish whiskey Tullamore DEW among its core brands globally. While Tullamore is available only in the duty-free stores of Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, the firm said there are plans to make it available in the domestic market in the near future. Globally, Jameson is the third biggest brand for France’s Pernod Ricard, after Absolut vodka and Ballantine’s scotch.

Lavelle adds that consumers in India and elsewhere are “flocking” to Irish whiskey due to its “approachability and versatility.”

27 February, 2020