Liquor Start-up targets Rs 100 cr in 3 years

UK-born Lisa Srao founded I Brands Beverage Ltd, an affordable luxury liquor start-up, in 2008. The Bangalore-based company manufactures and distributes alcoholic beverages in India. The country's liquor industry is worth $9 billion.

Srao, who did international marketing for the home entertainment industry in the UK prior to launching I Brands in India, now wants to be one of the top five liquor companies in the country.

She plans to take her liquor brand international, starting with Africa and Russia. "We are here (in India) to make a mark. We don't want to be like the players who enter the segment, and then fail," says Srao, Chairman and Managing Director of I Brands, who invested Rs 25 crore to set up the business. She expects to post revenues of Rs 100 crore over the next three years.

Srao spent two years in research and development to ensure that she launched the right product for the right market. "We have seen 100 per cent year-on-year growth. We have trebled the turnover since the previous year.

This [liquor] market is getting organised, which is working in our favour," says Srao, while claiming to be the only woman Founder in the male-dominated Indian spirits business. With advertising agency Mudra, already on board, Srao is planning a TV campaign around I Brands by the year-end followed by a celebrity endorsement.

I Brands's strategy was not to enter the metros initially; rather it took a semi-urban route to success before it made plans to enter the metros. Besides its presence in eight states, next on Srao's cards is Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, the North-east region, Rajasthan and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the next couple of years.

Srao will take I Brands to Mumbai sometime next year. I Brands already has a strong presence in Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the North and North-east, and Goa and Pondicherry in the South. In July, it won a contract with the paramilitary forces as well.  

All I Brands products are positioned in the mass market premium segment. I Brands marked its India entry with the launch of three products: Three Royals (180 ml at Rs 200 in Punjab), a premium segment whisky; its flagship product Granton (180 ml at Rs 140 in Punjab), a value segment whisky; and Rum 99 (180 ml at Rs 110 in Punjab), a Jamaican flavoured dark rum. The price range varies in other states. 

I Brands positioned its three brands like this. The target group for Granton include first-time whisky drinkers who are first-level managers with the monthly income of Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000; Three Royals targets seasoned whisky drinkers, who have a taste for a smooth blend, and Rum 99 is sold among the youth, primarily college students.

Srao recently launched Granton XO Brandy in Pondicherry. "Brandy sells largely in South. That's where it will be promoted at the moment."

Srao's father, too, is in the liquor business in the UK. She might get his beer brand to India at a later stage. It is not on her priority list now. "I believe in paying close attention to detail towards developing the finest of blends presented in the best possible forms of packaging, from exquisite award-winning canisters to beautifully embossed bottles and other features designed to ensure that all I Brands products stand out in every segment that they are positioned in," says Srao.