A rise in the levels of disposable income in the northern region has lead to a majority of people shifting to premium liquor brands from the mainstream ones. This has also come as an aftermath of the reduction in prices of imported spirits, due the removal of the additional customs duty in July.
Scrapping of Additional Customs Duty (ACD) has proven to be a boon to the overseas liquor industry, as the domestic importers are also benefiting from the increased sale due to a price drop of up to 30% in retail.
Further promoting the luxury spirits segment, world’s largest drinks company, Diageo Plc, has announced a major price cut across its premium whisky brands. Prices across its luxury spirits have been dropped between 20-37% across a few states including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh , Karnataka, Kolkata and Delhi.
Talking to FE, Asif Adil, managing director, Diageo (India) shared, “We have slashed the prices of the two variants of Johnnie Walker whisky? Black label and Red ? by 20-37% in different states. Now onwards, a bottle of Black Label will cost about Rs 3,174 from Rs 4,037 registering a reduction of about 21%. In Haryana the bottle will be available at a price of Rs 1,996 instead of Rs 3,168, a reduction of 37%. There has been a price reduction of about 7%, 14% and 21% in Punjab, Chandigarh and Karnataka respectively. We will reduce prices of our vodka brands, such as Ciroc and Smirnoff, as well shortly.”
Similarly Johnnie Walker’s Red Label brand is cheaper by 17%, 21%, 25% and 15% in Delhi, Kolkatta, Chandigarh and Punjab respectively. Asif added, “Since it’s the onset of the festive season, the price cut will boost the sales. We expect a rise of about 50-60% in the sales during the season. To celebrate this we have initiated a festive program where incentives will be given for bulk purchases. We have rolled out our gift packs in the market and there are special offers for the bar tenders also.”
Imported spirits manufacturers are recruiting new consumers in an increasing frequency.
“Diageo is going to launch a new wine brand called Nilaya in the market this week. Our new manufacturing facility in Ambala will be commissioned within the next few days. We are also mulling over setting up a new unit somewhere in Kolkatta. But since the northern region contributes about 70% to our sales revenue, we’ll continue to focus on it,” said Asif.