India outpaces China, becomes 2nd-biggest market for Pernod Ricard amid premium push, says CEO

For the first time, India outpaced China to become the second-biggest market by sales for Pernod Ricard during its fiscal year ended June, said Alexandre Ricard, chairman and CEO at the French distiller. He attributed the surge to a growing cohort of well-heeled consumers and higher sales of its premium brands such as Absolut vodka, Chivas Regal and Glenlivet.

"All of the lights are green for the Indian market. It enjoys very strong and favourable macro fundamentals and strong GDP growth. And the middle and affluent class population is growing. And we have, every single year, 25 million people joining the legal drinking age population," Ricard told analysts.

Until last fiscal, India contributed 10% of Pernod Ricard’s global sales, ranking third after the US and China. In volume terms, India has been the largest market worldwide for many years.


In FY24, the US accounted for 19% of Pernod Ricard’s sales, followed by India at 12% and China at 10%, according to the company, which considers all three countries are “must-win” markets.

Considering Pernod Ricard’s annual sales of 11.5 billion euros, the Indian business roughly translates into 1.38 billion euros or about Rs 12,700 crore.

Pernod Ricard currently operates a sole distillery in India, at Nashik in Maharashtra, apart from 24 bottling sites across the country. The company, which spends nearly 35 million euros annually in India on average, last year announced an investment of 200 million euros to build its biggest Asian distillery at Nagpur in Maharashtra.

The world's second biggest alco-bev firm controls about a fourth of India’s whiskey market despite having a negligible presence in the mass market segment. It earns majority of its sales from premium and semi-premium brands such as Blenders Pride, Royal Stag and Imperial Blue. It controls half of India’s premium whiskey market, and 42% of the imported spirits market.

"There is a strong presence of premium-plus western-style spirits in the Indian spirits market. And it is indeed the world's largest whiskey market. We have grown on average over the last five years by 8% in line with our algorithm for India, which is high single, low double digits for that market. We do enjoy a strong leading position with, broadly speaking, half of the market and with a great portfolio of brands, which continues to enrich itself with some innovation," Ricard said.

The premiumisation trend is continuing in the Indian market though it is now acquiring a distinctly local element with the presence of several homegrown brands, according to IWSR.

"Local distillers in all spirits categories are rationalising their portfolios to focus on upmarket products, prioritising value sales and margin over volume. Upgrading the offer has been a theme for some time in Indian whiskey. 2023 may prove to have been a watershed year, as interest in Indian single malts rapidly narrowed the sales gap to single malt scotch, long-regarded as the epitome of quality in India," said IWSR.

Last month, Pernod launched two new whiskies - Royal Stag Double Dark Peaty Whisky and Blenders Pride Four Elements Premium Whisky - as part of the premiumisation initiative following the launch of Longitude 77 - its first Indian single malt.