India: United Breweries plans entering spirits retail market to boost profits

United Breweries, India's largest brewer, announced on November 28 that the group was planning to enter the retail market for spirits to further boost its profit margin, according to Asia Pulse.

"We are getting into the retailing of beverage alcohol ourselves because we see that a significant part of the overall value chain is captured by the retailers," UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya stated.

Retailing of alcohol would improve the profitability of the group, which currently holds almost 50 per cent of the market share, he told NDTV on the sidelines of IIM-A Conclave at Ahmedabad.

Earlier this year, UB Group had signed a Rs 13 billion deal with Shaw Wallace to become the market leader in Indian Made Foreign Liquor market, estimated to grow by 8-10 per cent annually.On his bid to buy out the entire stake of Air Sahara, Mallya, who heads Kingfisher Airlines, said currently the company was maintaining a "wait and watch" policy on the matter.

Notably, last month in Delhi, Mallya had announced it would make a bid for the entire stake of Air Sahara citing it would fulfil the "need for scale" of Kingfisher.

30 November, 2005