The acquisition of some more domestic and foreign brands through a joint venture or licensing arrangement is also on the anvil, even as MABL is set to relaunch Sandpiper and Turbo in the Indian market.

According to MABL vice-chairman and managing director Ravi Jain, "MABL has evolved into a stand-alone business entity. MABL, together with UB already have a 50 per cent marketshare of the entire beer market. Recently, we have added two more manufacturing units to our list as contract manufacturers.""We will keep on focusing on Zingaro in the strong beer segment and Sandpiper in the mild beer segment as the national brand and all others will come under the regional brand. We will soon relaunch Sandpiper and Turbo, and we are in a position to introduce our brands from multi-breweries.

The company has been transformed into an independent business unit with its own distribution network, infrastructure, marketing and sales force and simultaneously consolidating UB Group's leadership position," said Mr Jain.To consolidate its position in the market, the company is set to achieve the targeted production capacity of 15 to 16 million cases from 15 breweries by this year, from the current captive capacity of 12 million cases.

The company has a portfolio of nine brands - five brands of the UB group leased to MABL with an option to buy, two brands - Sandpiper and Turbo - acquired from Inertia, Guru of Mohan Goldwater and MABL's own Zingaro." MABL, at present, has around seven per cent share in the Indian strong beer market through the regional brands it markets. MABL may also pick up the marketing rights of some under-performing brands from outside the UB Group and create win-win situations for both. There is a possibility that the UB group may lend some of its breweries to MABL to cash in on synergies.