Karan Bilimoria, the Hyderabad based Indian beer maker, plans to export cobra beer to India, the USA and South Africa in a big way, according to Financialexpress.com

“In 20 years, China has gone from nowhere to become the world’s second biggest beer market. The same could happen in India, where the market is only just beginning to liberalise. Indians only drink half a litre of beer per person, per year,” Bilimoria told PTI on Tuesday.

Cobra was founded in 1989 by Bilimoria, who did his higher studies in chartered accountancy here before he devised the recipe for cobra beer with the help of a Prague trained Indian master brewer. The lager is brewed under licence in the UK and until now has been exported to India only on an ad hoc basis.

However, the imports attract a duty of 400 per cent, and Bilimoria is seeking to buy or forge links with an Indian brewery to avoid tax and boost his product’s international sales. So far cobra has been generating less than 10 per cent of its 50 million pounds retail sales overseas.

The company has raised 4 million pounds from an issue of preferred shares, arranged by Grant Thornton, the accountant, and a further 4.6 million pounds in debt from a private bank. Bilimoria said he still wanted to float the company but “at the end of next year at the earliest.”

30 May, 2003