E-Malt.com News article: India: UK’s Cobra beer to conquer Indian market

Cobra beer from Britain will flow into more Indian cities with its India-born manufacturer Karan Bilimoria zeroing in on Andhra Pradesh for a $10 million new facility apart from eyeing two more franchisees, Newkerala announced on September 9.

The chief executive of Cobra Beer Ltd made a statement "We have launched the Cobra beer in Mumbai, New Delhi, Goa and Kolkata. We are now looking at south and southwest India - basically Bangalore and Hyderabad”.

"Our target is to expand our sales to around one million cases of beer in India over the next three years. It is a very conservative estimate, but we will move slow and steady," Bilimoria, 43, told IANS.

Bilimoria - who first brewed beer in Bangalore and imported it to Britain for seven years before setting up operations there - said he was also upgrading the Mount Shivalik brewery in Rajasthan with which Cobra has a licensing agreement.

Speaking about other international projects, Bilimoria said China was a market where Cobra will establish operations soon. He said China was once like India and per capita consumption of beer was barely 0.6 litres.

Cobra Beer Ltd was founded by Bilimoria in 1989 when he was all of 27 with $30,000 in debt after he felt that Britain needed a smoother and less gassy lager that could appeal to both ale and lager drinkers alike.The first shipment of Cobra was exported to Britain in 1990, seven years later he entered into a pact with a 125-year brewery in Britain to produce the lager and today the brand is stocked in over 6,000 restaurants and most supermarkets.

In 2005 was a turning point for him when he started marketing his beer in India - first in Mumbai and New Delhi followed by Goa and Kolkata. The Indian beer, he said, has the same quality even though only the hops are imported.


09 September, 2005