Matthew J. Shattock, President and CEO of Beam Global Spirits & Wine, spoke about the company’s plans to cash in on the growing Indian whiskey market and on lessons learnt from the global economic crisis.
India is a top 10 market for us and the potential for growth is enormous. We want to cash in on this opportunity. That is why we have launched Teacher’s Origin, a high-end version of the popular Teacher’s brand. Our Laphroaig and Ardmore labels are also available here now. India has 700 million potential consumers who are under 30 and we expect the 190 million-case per annum Indian whiskey market to double its size by 2011. At present, per capita consumption here is one-third that of China’s and one-fifth that of the US. But it is a faster growing market.
The key lesson from the downturn was that no matter how hyped a brand is, there is no substitute to focussing on consumer feedback. Brands that were in touch with the needs of consumers withstood the crisis better. With regards to India, the main lesson was: make sure you sell more of what you sell already instead of trying to bring in new labels.
Our focus for the next two years will be to penetrate into tier-II and tier-III towns in India by improving distribution and looking at new strategies. These would include special price points to attract first-time buyers and also merchandising innovations such as creating smaller-sized bottles so that new consumers can come in.
