Swiggy in talks with states for liquor home delivery

Bengaluru: Swiggy is in talks with several state governments to seek permission for home delivery of alcohol from local licensed retailers, a top executive has said. “We are in talks with a host of state governments,” said Vivek Sunder, chief operating officer, Swiggy, at the Economic Times Virtual Tech Summit. “If the government gives us a green signal... And we are making sure everyone is safe in the process... We will explore that possibility... We are not going to rush into it prematurely,” he added.

Several state governments, including Punjab, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Delhi and Odisha have in-principle welcomed the SC opinion favouring home delivery of alcohol and have held talks with Swiggy, Zomato and smaller startups like HipBar and Liqhub to understand the value-proposition of alcohol delivery. “Retail stores... pay a big licence fee and this might eat into some part of their business...and since alcohol business retailers tend to be ...politically connected...we will have to see how this will weigh,” a top executive at an alcohol beverage manufacturing firm told ET.

“Our research shows that facilitating home delivery can potentially double the current collection for states and also strengthen the economy,” said Aryan Solanki of Let’sBuyDrink, which started operations in early 2013 but was non-operational since June 2014 due to lack of regulatory clarity.