In a bid to extend its presence in the growing white spirit market, India?s largest spirit maker, United Spirits Limited (USL) is planning to launch mid-priced or premium vodka brand within a year?s time. Already a leader in the entry level vodka market with over 80% of the market share through its brands Romanov and White Mischief, the company now wants to grab a pie of the growing premium vodka market and wants to create a mark for itself in the mid-price segment too where very few players exist.
Debashish Shyam, asst. vice president ? marketing, USL told FE, ?Though vodka accounts for a very small percentage of the total liquor market, it is a segment of the future. And that is the reason we are investing very heavily in this segment. We are the leader in the regular vodka segment and we are also planning to launch mid-prize or premium vodka in the next year or so for sure.?
If the premium vodka launch precedes the mid-prize vodka, it would lead to an interesting tussle between USL and its rival Diageo?s Smirnoff vodka which has more than 90% of the market share in the premium segment. And if it launches a mid-prize vodka would compete against brands like Fuel (Seagram), Shark Tooth (Diageo) and Magic Moments (Radico Khaitan).
According to industry estimates, the total size of the vodka market in India is five million cases. It has been growing consistently at a healthy rate of 35-40 % since last five years. Currently 90% of the vodka sold in the market is regular vodka and rest 10% is premium vodka.
Preempting the number of vodka launches in future, Shyam is placing big emphasis on promotion and brand building. To reinvigorate its brand White Mischief, USL on Wednesday appointed Bollywood actor Zayed Khan as the brand ambassador, last year it had also signed Shilpa Shetty as a brand ambassador for Romanov. Last year, the company had spent Rs 12-15 crore on branding and advertising and this year it would be spending about Rs 20 crores.
USL also has premium and ultra-premium vodka Vladivar from the stable of Whyte & Mackay which is expected to be launched later in the year. The company also plans to launch flavoured vodka under its White Mischief brand.
