UB set to relaunch London Pilsner within a month

Sambit Datta

Mumbai, May 16: UNITED Breweries (UB) is all set to relaunch London Pilsner along with a new variant — London No 1 strong — within a month. These two products, in a new packaging, will be launched nationally. There are also plans to launch niche brands of beer — Light Ice and Kingfisher Sport — targeted at the calorie conscious consumer.

UB marketing manager (breweries division) Ramesh Viswanathan said: “We are all set to relaunch London Pilsner, the brand acquired from Associated Breweries. This brand had a strong market in Maharashtra and now we will place it nationally. San Miguel was licensed for us and now we are waiting for the crystalisation of the license agreement.”

In the wake of the government ban on liquor advertisements on popular media, liquor companies are currently thinking of various alternatives to find a platform to reach out to millions of customers.

UB has now chosen the most modern, techno-savvy and convenient medium. The company has introduced a new website — www.kingfishernetshop.com — which will help to boost the sales of Kingfisher in Mumbai market.

Now, with a click of a mouse, Kingfisher’s range of beers will be delivered at the doorstep within two hours without any extra cost, that too at a five per cent discount. The Kingfisher range of elegant and trendy apparel and accessories designed exclusively for Kingfisher by one of India’s best known designers Manoviraj Khosla will also be available on the net.

According to Mr Viswanathan: “As a part of building brand imagery, apart from sponsorship of events of sports, fashion and horse racing, we are also concentrating on the accessibility of our products to the customer. Kingfisher has been able to achieve and retain a leadership position in the market by staying in constant touch with changing consumer needs and trends.”

Kingfisher Premium lager beer is the largest selling beer brand in India with 26 per cent market share. Kingfisher has a 40 per cent market share of the Indian beer market and in the last calender year the volume of beer sales of the company increased by 21 per cent.