United Spirits set on W&M local bottling

BANGALORE: Vijay Mallya-led United Spirits Ltd is expected to go in for local bottling of Whyte & Mackay Scotch whisky, taking it to the value Scotch business in India. Currently, Whyte & Mackay brand is bottled in origin in Scotland and priced premium alongside Johnnie Walker Black Label and Chivas Regal in India.

USL acquired Glasgow-based Whyte & Mackay Plc, with namesake flagship Scotch whisky brand, for about $1.18 billion exactly a year ago. A top USL official said the company was mulling introduction of Whyte & Mackay as a locally-bottled scotch pitted against Diageo���s Black & White and VAT 69. However, the company has not indicated a definite timeframe for the same.

The move would see Whyte & Mackay brand straddling two different price segments, and the locally-bottled variant will not come with an age statement on the bottle as normally done by premium scotch whiskies. For instance, the imported Whyte & Mackay comes with a minimum maturation claim of 13 years.

So far, USL has already introduced three variants of the Whyte and Mackay brand in the imported premium segment ��� Whyte & Mackay 13-year-old, 19-year-old and 22-year-old. USL���s move to bring in Whyte & Mackay through local bottling is interesting, as the company has already indicated plans to bring in the Scottish company���s second-line brands like Charles Mackinlay to attack the value scotch category. Further, USL also operates another locally-bottled Scotch Black Dog in the standard segment.

The industry observers have been arguing that India could emerge as one of the biggest markets for Scotland���s main industry on the back of consumer upgradation from top-end domestic whiskies to value and standard Scotch whiskies. Sources said Whyte & Mackay���s second line brands like Charles MacKinlay will play against entry-level scotches like Diageo���s Haig, Whyte & Mackay brand will be slightly higher up in pricing, which would help the Indian giant straddle the value and standard scotch segments effectively.

Locally-bottled brands are seen as the key driver of the Scotch market in India, which is estimated at over 8 lakh cases, growing at around 20% per annum. One of the biggest suppliers of bulk scotch in the world, Whyte & Mackay has a bulk Scotch inventory of 115 million litres. The company, which became a 100% subsidiary of United Spirits Ltd last year, did sales of 9-10 million cases last fiscal, of which branded liquor sales accounted for two million cases.