Cobra Beer to relaunch General Bilimoria wines

KOLKATA: Karan Bilimoria-owned company Cobra Beer is all set to relaunch its premium wine brand, General Bilimoria Wines, in the domestic market.

The UK company had withdrawn the brand, which had a low-key presence in India, in January ’06. Launched in April ’03, the company’s wine brand was available only in niche markets of Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

“The comeback strategy of the brand is being designed by the ad firm Euro RSCG. This time, it will be a national rollout,” said Poonam Chandel, vice-president (marketing), Cobra Beer. General Bilimoria Wines, which has been named after Karan’s father, General FN Bilimoria, offers some of the exquisite French, Spanish and South African wines.

India’s wine market is estimated at 5m bottles a year — equivalent to around 200 people sharing one bottle. Wine makes up less than 1% of India’s $1.8-bn alcoholic drinks market.

But the wine market is growing at 25%-30% a year, nearly three times as fast as beer, whisky or rum. This growth curve has prompted the company to relaunch the product once again in the Indian market.

Elaborating the brand strategy, Ms Chandel said: “The idea is to integrate the marketing efforts in such a manner that it enhances the brand imagery and creates awareness about the brand in India as a brand that was born in India, then went to UK, became successful there and has come back to India now.”

For its existing Cobra beer brand, the company has also lined up above-the-line, below-the-line and other outdoor advertising campaigns. In the first stage of brand awareness, the company, will be entirely focusing on outdoor advertising.

It will be investing in on premise and off premise campaigns so that the consumers get to taste the brand and differentiate it from other beers available in the market.

Cobra Beer has also charted out plans to increase its presence in India. It is in the process of appointing a chief operating officer and a chief financial offer for implementing the company’s growth strategy.

Ms Chandel said: “Cobra Beer has recently raised 27.5m. Out of this, 13m has been used by the company to redeem all its convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares, which were due to be redeemed in ’07. The remaining funds will be largely used to finance Cobra’s expansion plans in the UK and India.”