ET BureauTill not too long ago, the only way to lay one’s hands on a bottle of imported grog was by making that not-too-discreet trip to your not-so-friendly neighbourhood bootlegger. Today, the well-heeled Indian has few such problems — fine wines, exotic liqueurs and hand-crafted single malts are available off-the-shelf of your favourite retailer thanks to the emergence of specialized importers.
Imports of alco-beverages in India are highly regulated and subject to a high and complex tax structure. Further, stringent import regulations and strict labelling and packaging norms, enforced by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, are serious challenges.
One way to hedge such risks is to look beyond just importing, and indeed many of these companies are doing just that by getting into niche retailing ventures themselves. Consider:
Keshav Prakash, who comes from a family that’s been in the wines and spirits business, has started The Vault, a one-stop portal that provides concierge service for global boutique spirits. Many of the importers are seeing an interest among angel investors and venture capital funds. Ankur Jain, after deciding to focus on importing premium craft beers, has now launched Craft Beer Hive, a branded draught beer dispensing network. His company Cerana recently closed two rounds of angel investments from a group of Indian and overseas investors. Meanwhile, the appropriately named FineWinesnMore has flagged off a wine-tasting room and a retail boutique. Read more about the men and women and their alco-bev ventures in the profiles on these pages.
Spirited Duo
Arun Kumar gave up his job as head of travel retail South Asia for Guinness UDV (now Diageo) a decade ago to set up Aspri Spirits with Jackie Matai, a financial veteran of sorts. At that time, many of his colleagues thought he was a bit crazy to walk out of a well-paying job. Today, though, Kumar has no regrets what with Aspri emerging as a leading distributor of some 300 prominent international brands of wines and spirits. “We saw the opportunity when the Indian consumer started becoming more discerning. Indians were travelling more and getting exposure to international trends. Some of the large alco-beverages majors were here but many globally iconic brands in various segments were not available,” says Kumar.
High import tariffs on alcoholic beverages is one of the biggest challenges for the business. But what keeps Aspri upbeat is the growth in consumption of high-end premium alcoholic beverages. “A walk through liquor stores across the country shows that they no longer cater to mid-level brands but one sees a good collection of premium brands. Super-premium brands too are available at select stores,” adds Kumar.
Aspri, which now has a pan-Indian network, works with the brands it imports to bring in global brand ambassadors with programmes targeted at food and beverage professionals and also end-consumers.
“We also try to bring an Indian perspective especially in cocktails wherein we try to adapt local likes and preferences,” Kumar says. While Aspri has many premium whiskies, including Highland Park single malts and The Famous Grouse blended Scotch, in its portfolio, Kumar and Matai also see a growth trend in the consumption of wine, vodka, tequila and other cocktail liqueurs in India.
Beyond Lager
A computer engineer from Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, Ankur Jain didn’t start as an insider in the spirits business. “I was, of course, an avid consumer of beer and; living and working in Manhattan after college, I was spoilt for choice with the best premium beers from all over the world,” says Jain.
After ReliantMD, a healthcare venture that he had co-founded in the US, was acquired by a healthcare provider network in 2006, Jain moved back to Delhi and soon realized that there were no beers worth drinking in India except lagers. That was the cue for his next entrepreneurial foray, Cerana Imports, which brings into the country a portfolio of premium craft beers. Today Cerana imports and distributes over 20 global brands, including Belgian Blonde Ale of Duvel, Fruit Beers of Liefmans, Trappist Beers of Chimay and one of the largest Spanish beer brands of Estrella Damm.
Premium craft beers account for roughly 5% of the imported beer segment in India but that doesn’t faze Jain who is positioning Cerana as India’s leading craft beer company. His passion stems from the fact that speciality and premium beer consumption in India is growing at 30% annually. “Recently, Cerena forayed into the draught beer segment,” says Jain, by “creating India’s first brand of independent draught beer network, with vending machines in restaurants and hotels starting with Delhi and Mumbai.” The draught beer platform has been branded Craft Beer Hive. Cerana has also launched its own packaged craft beer Biru.
“All our beers have a story around them and we want Indians to understand the gourmet portfolio,” says Jain. One example: Chimay is a limited edition luxury beer, brewed by monks in Trappist abbeys in Belgium.
Malt Vault
Keshav Prakash was looking at a solution to a problem when he set up The Vault in 2013, a one-stop portal for the appreciation of, and an education in, fine spirits. “In India, there’s no go-to entity for access and knowledge when it comes to fine spirits. For instance, if you want to choose a bottle of fine rum or cognac as a gift, you probably wouldn’t know where to start looking. I wanted to offer a step-up on the airport duty-free retail experience,” says Prakash, who has travelled to exotic destinations in search of fine spirits and their distillers.
During one such visit to an expo in France he met a group of boutique distillers with an eye on the Indian market. And that’s how the idea of his concierge service for handcrafted, boutique spirits, sourced from around the world was born. “This is a collection of experiences from around the world,” says Prakash who is from a family engaged in the wines and spirits business in south India but was himself an advertising professional in Mumbai before he made a foray into the business. His collection at The Vault has on offer a curated mix of whisky, rum, cognac, gin, vodka and tequila from labels that are independently owned, exclusive and small-batch. He imports only from the distilleries that he personally visits.
The main challenge for Prakash’s business is government regulation. “Updated and comprehensive information on regulations is hard to get. And with excise being a state subject, sometimes dealing with regulations is like working with many different countries,” he says.
However, that doesn’t stop him from planning the next stage of his business. He plans to start operations in Delhi within the next few months. An exclusive tasting studio is also in the works.
Sip, Swirl, Swallow
When Dharti Desai and her brother Mehul A Desai decided to set up FineWinesnMore (FWM) in January 2007, they had between them 15 years of experience in direct marketing mail order courtesy of their earlier entrepreneurial ventures. And sure enough right from the start the brother-sister duo positioned FWM as an educational, communications and interactive tool for wine consumers rather than just an importing and distribution business. That in fact is why Dharti coined the name FineWinesnMore for their start-up.
FWM is yet in the red, and Dharti reckons it will be another 3-5 years before they see a profit, current annual growth rates of 15-20% notwithstanding. And the Desais have no plans to extend their portfolio beyond wines in a bid to gain both scale and profit. “We have tweaked our business model and now our company has all three licences needed to sell wine in India — import, wholesale and retail. So we can truly provide an experience which guards fiercely the integrity of the beautiful bottle of wine when it reaches the customer,” says Dharti. She is now set for the next leg of FWM: wine retailing.
The ‘more’ in FWM also involves increasing awareness of fine wines amongst Indians. “In India, you cannot sell fine wine unless you educate the customer. But we have managed to do this in a manner which is not overwhelming,” she says. FWM has opened its first retail boutique and tasting room, that offers an array of wines from all big importers, in south Mumbai last month.
Pairing Wine With Passion
Aman Dhall, you can say, has the nose for the right business. Back in 2000 he set up the wine importing division of the family-owned Brindco. Those were the days when Delhi’s swish set was learning to sniff their Sauvignon and swirl their Shiraz. Brindco was established in 1967 by Dhall’s father Brinder Pal Singh to distribute imported alcoholic products.
Dhall has improved on his first-mover advantage. Brindco has deployed dedicated sales staff for on trade and off trade distribution to help its clients with brand building. The company is the only importing and distributing outfit that hires its own sommeliers. “While the volumes come from our spirits and beer business, it’s passion that drives the wine portfolio. We are now focussed on expanding the distribution footprint,” says Dhall.
Dhall, who studied management at University of Wales and Harvard and cut his teeth working for United Distillers in the UK, is unfazed by India’s strict food safety and labelling norms. “Listing the ingredients and name and address of the importer and manufacturer on the label is a requirement in many countries and we have worked hard towards being compliant with these laws in India over the past few years,” he says.
Brindco has taken a hit because of the labelling norms but Dhall thinks that the rules will help the Indian alco-beverages sector become globalized. “In some cases, where small vineyards are not able to adopt the norms, we have been forced to end our agreement with them and now we have only 250 suppliers in the wine segment compared to 600 five years back.”
But with wine continuing to rule the aspirational chart, it is unlikely that Dhall will lose his good spirits soon.
Liquor in his Blood
Suhail Mehra is the fifth generation of a family that has been in the business of liquor imports. The newest entrant to Mohan Brothers is working with different global brands such as Penfolds wine, Lindemans beer, Treasury Wine Estates, Voga Italian wine, Barone Ricasoli wine and Svedka vodka. “My family has been in the business of liquor imports since 1905. But over the past 10 years, the business has transformed completely from supplying only to the diplomatic missions in India to catering to the huge growing demand from restaurants, hotels, pubs and the like,” says Mehra who, after graduating from Delhi, trained under the Louis Vuitton Moet & Hennessy marketing and business management team in Hong Kong.
Mehra’s current focus is on building the Svedka brand of vodka, owned by New Yorkbased Constellation Brands. Mehra says it is a premium vodka that’s priced competitively vis-à-vis other brands in the same segment. Mohan Brothers also imports Constellation’s iconic Robert Mondavi brand of California wine.
Imports of alco-beverages in India are highly regulated and subject to a high and complex tax structure. Further, stringent import regulations and strict labelling and packaging norms, enforced by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, are serious challenges.
One way to hedge such risks is to look beyond just importing, and indeed many of these companies are doing just that by getting into niche retailing ventures themselves. Consider:
Keshav Prakash, who comes from a family that’s been in the wines and spirits business, has started The Vault, a one-stop portal that provides concierge service for global boutique spirits. Many of the importers are seeing an interest among angel investors and venture capital funds. Ankur Jain, after deciding to focus on importing premium craft beers, has now launched Craft Beer Hive, a branded draught beer dispensing network. His company Cerana recently closed two rounds of angel investments from a group of Indian and overseas investors. Meanwhile, the appropriately named FineWinesnMore has flagged off a wine-tasting room and a retail boutique. Read more about the men and women and their alco-bev ventures in the profiles on these pages.
Spirited Duo
Arun Kumar gave up his job as head of travel retail South Asia for Guinness UDV (now Diageo) a decade ago to set up Aspri Spirits with Jackie Matai, a financial veteran of sorts. At that time, many of his colleagues thought he was a bit crazy to walk out of a well-paying job. Today, though, Kumar has no regrets what with Aspri emerging as a leading distributor of some 300 prominent international brands of wines and spirits. “We saw the opportunity when the Indian consumer started becoming more discerning. Indians were travelling more and getting exposure to international trends. Some of the large alco-beverages majors were here but many globally iconic brands in various segments were not available,” says Kumar.
High import tariffs on alcoholic beverages is one of the biggest challenges for the business. But what keeps Aspri upbeat is the growth in consumption of high-end premium alcoholic beverages. “A walk through liquor stores across the country shows that they no longer cater to mid-level brands but one sees a good collection of premium brands. Super-premium brands too are available at select stores,” adds Kumar.
Aspri, which now has a pan-Indian network, works with the brands it imports to bring in global brand ambassadors with programmes targeted at food and beverage professionals and also end-consumers.
“We also try to bring an Indian perspective especially in cocktails wherein we try to adapt local likes and preferences,” Kumar says. While Aspri has many premium whiskies, including Highland Park single malts and The Famous Grouse blended Scotch, in its portfolio, Kumar and Matai also see a growth trend in the consumption of wine, vodka, tequila and other cocktail liqueurs in India.
A computer engineer from Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, Ankur Jain didn’t start as an insider in the spirits business. “I was, of course, an avid consumer of beer and; living and working in Manhattan after college, I was spoilt for choice with the best premium beers from all over the world,” says Jain.
After ReliantMD, a healthcare venture that he had co-founded in the US, was acquired by a healthcare provider network in 2006, Jain moved back to Delhi and soon realized that there were no beers worth drinking in India except lagers. That was the cue for his next entrepreneurial foray, Cerana Imports, which brings into the country a portfolio of premium craft beers. Today Cerana imports and distributes over 20 global brands, including Belgian Blonde Ale of Duvel, Fruit Beers of Liefmans, Trappist Beers of Chimay and one of the largest Spanish beer brands of Estrella Damm.
Premium craft beers account for roughly 5% of the imported beer segment in India but that doesn’t faze Jain who is positioning Cerana as India’s leading craft beer company. His passion stems from the fact that speciality and premium beer consumption in India is growing at 30% annually. “Recently, Cerena forayed into the draught beer segment,” says Jain, by “creating India’s first brand of independent draught beer network, with vending machines in restaurants and hotels starting with Delhi and Mumbai.” The draught beer platform has been branded Craft Beer Hive. Cerana has also launched its own packaged craft beer Biru.
“All our beers have a story around them and we want Indians to understand the gourmet portfolio,” says Jain. One example: Chimay is a limited edition luxury beer, brewed by monks in Trappist abbeys in Belgium.
Malt Vault
Keshav Prakash was looking at a solution to a problem when he set up The Vault in 2013, a one-stop portal for the appreciation of, and an education in, fine spirits. “In India, there’s no go-to entity for access and knowledge when it comes to fine spirits. For instance, if you want to choose a bottle of fine rum or cognac as a gift, you probably wouldn’t know where to start looking. I wanted to offer a step-up on the airport duty-free retail experience,” says Prakash, who has travelled to exotic destinations in search of fine spirits and their distillers.
During one such visit to an expo in France he met a group of boutique distillers with an eye on the Indian market. And that’s how the idea of his concierge service for handcrafted, boutique spirits, sourced from around the world was born. “This is a collection of experiences from around the world,” says Prakash who is from a family engaged in the wines and spirits business in south India but was himself an advertising professional in Mumbai before he made a foray into the business. His collection at The Vault has on offer a curated mix of whisky, rum, cognac, gin, vodka and tequila from labels that are independently owned, exclusive and small-batch. He imports only from the distilleries that he personally visits.
However, that doesn’t stop him from planning the next stage of his business. He plans to start operations in Delhi within the next few months. An exclusive tasting studio is also in the works.
Sip, Swirl, Swallow
When Dharti Desai and her brother Mehul A Desai decided to set up FineWinesnMore (FWM) in January 2007, they had between them 15 years of experience in direct marketing mail order courtesy of their earlier entrepreneurial ventures. And sure enough right from the start the brother-sister duo positioned FWM as an educational, communications and interactive tool for wine consumers rather than just an importing and distribution business. That in fact is why Dharti coined the name FineWinesnMore for their start-up.
FWM is yet in the red, and Dharti reckons it will be another 3-5 years before they see a profit, current annual growth rates of 15-20% notwithstanding. And the Desais have no plans to extend their portfolio beyond wines in a bid to gain both scale and profit. “We have tweaked our business model and now our company has all three licences needed to sell wine in India — import, wholesale and retail. So we can truly provide an experience which guards fiercely the integrity of the beautiful bottle of wine when it reaches the customer,” says Dharti. She is now set for the next leg of FWM: wine retailing.
Pairing Wine With Passion
Aman Dhall, you can say, has the nose for the right business. Back in 2000 he set up the wine importing division of the family-owned Brindco. Those were the days when Delhi’s swish set was learning to sniff their Sauvignon and swirl their Shiraz. Brindco was established in 1967 by Dhall’s father Brinder Pal Singh to distribute imported alcoholic products.
Dhall has improved on his first-mover advantage. Brindco has deployed dedicated sales staff for on trade and off trade distribution to help its clients with brand building. The company is the only importing and distributing outfit that hires its own sommeliers. “While the volumes come from our spirits and beer business, it’s passion that drives the wine portfolio. We are now focussed on expanding the distribution footprint,” says Dhall.
Dhall, who studied management at University of Wales and Harvard and cut his teeth working for United Distillers in the UK, is unfazed by India’s strict food safety and labelling norms. “Listing the ingredients and name and address of the importer and manufacturer on the label is a requirement in many countries and we have worked hard towards being compliant with these laws in India over the past few years,” he says.
Brindco has taken a hit because of the labelling norms but Dhall thinks that the rules will help the Indian alco-beverages sector become globalized. “In some cases, where small vineyards are not able to adopt the norms, we have been forced to end our agreement with them and now we have only 250 suppliers in the wine segment compared to 600 five years back.”
But with wine continuing to rule the aspirational chart, it is unlikely that Dhall will lose his good spirits soon.
Liquor in his Blood
Suhail Mehra is the fifth generation of a family that has been in the business of liquor imports. The newest entrant to Mohan Brothers is working with different global brands such as Penfolds wine, Lindemans beer, Treasury Wine Estates, Voga Italian wine, Barone Ricasoli wine and Svedka vodka. “My family has been in the business of liquor imports since 1905. But over the past 10 years, the business has transformed completely from supplying only to the diplomatic missions in India to catering to the huge growing demand from restaurants, hotels, pubs and the like,” says Mehra who, after graduating from Delhi, trained under the Louis Vuitton Moet & Hennessy marketing and business management team in Hong Kong.
Mehra’s current focus is on building the Svedka brand of vodka, owned by New Yorkbased Constellation Brands. Mehra says it is a premium vodka that’s priced competitively vis-à-vis other brands in the same segment. Mohan Brothers also imports Constellation’s iconic Robert Mondavi brand of California wine.
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