Betting big on its Loire Valley?s Bouvet Ladubay wine, United Spirits is planning to double its wine production in the next three to four years, said Abhay Kewadkar, chief wine maker & business head (wines) and director of Four Seasons Wines Ltd, United Spirits.
The winery, which United Spirits had earlier acquired from French champagne major Taittinger, will look at producing 8 million bottles of wine against 4 million bottles at present.
“We are trying to expand there. We have already completed modernisation of the winery, and expansion in volumes will follow. The plan is to almost double output in the next three to four years,” Kewadkar told FE. Loire Valley in France produces the Bouvet Ladubay label of wine and exports 70% of its product to over 36 countries.
Meanwhile, UB is also planning to scale up capacity of its Four Seasons Winery at Baramati in Maharashtra to 12 million bottles from its current 2 million bottles. ?A project has been designed to cater a tankage capacity of one million cases (twelve million bottles). Currently we have a tankage capacity of two million bottles,? Kewadkar said. Surrounded by 300 acre of vineyards, the winery at Baramati, reported to be the largest in the country, produces variants of the company’s flagship label Four Seasons and its entry level brand Zinzi. With over a million bottles of its home grown labels likely to be produced in the fiscal 2010-2011, Kewadkar said plans to export the home grown wines were also on the horizon, albeit, a distant one.
?We do have plans to export. We did a wine tasting at Vinexpo in France about eight months back to see consumer reactions in the international market and the quality acceptance was tremendous. The export potential is there, but it is too early to talk about it now,? he said. With such growth plans going forward, and with the wine industry expanding at 30-40% annually, Kewadkar said the company is working towards capturing 30- 35% market share in the next three to four years, which, he hoped would put it close to number one.