Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 (IANS) India’s third largest spirits company, Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt. Ltd., Thursday announced its foray into the semi-premium brandy segment in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh with the launch of ‘Lord & Master – French Grape Brandy’.
ABD (formerly BDA Limited) is a Kishore Chhabria-promoted company and its latest offering will cost Rs.500 for a one litre bottle.
This new brand has come out at a time when in 2011, sales of liquor and beer in Kerala shot up to 2.5 lakh crore cases (12 bottles each) and the state’s per capita consumption of alcohol was 10 litres. It was 3.1 litres in 1991.
At 50 percent of the consumption, rum is the most favoured drink in Kerala, followed by 40 per cent of drinkers preferring brandy.
According to the trade, sales of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation sales is at an all time high of Rs.7,000 crores for the current fiscal, and the revenue earned by the government is expected to cross Rs.6,000 crores.
Kerala today has 708 bars and 383 state-run retail outlets.
‘We already enjoy a huge franchise with consumers in the southern states and Lord & Master gives us another opportunity to engage them further,’ said Deepak Roy, executive vice-chairman and CEO of ABD.
ABD with this new product aims to garner 10 percent share of the segment in the first year of launch in both markets.
