Now,’Officer’s Choice’ to tickle US tipplers

The Mumbai-based firm is also looking to invest around Rs 250 crore in the next 18 months to build in-house distillation capacity and acquisition of a manufacturing facility.

“Before the close of the year,we are confident of sending some shipments to the US,” ABD Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Deepak Roy said.

He said that the company,which is the third largest liquor firm in India,got US FDA approval to market the brand there two months ago.

“Now we are just waiting for the label approval from the regulator,which we are hoping to get in the next 4-6 weeks,” Roy said,adding that the company had already lined up a distributor for the product in the US.

The company,which already exports its whiskey to middle East countries,has also started exporting to African countries.

“We have started exporting to seven African countries from April this year. We are also scouting Latin American countries for further exports,” Roy said.

Officer’s Choice whiskey is the largest selling brand from ABD and accounts to over 90 per cent of its turnover. The company reported sales of Rs 1,200 crore in the last fiscal.

It expects to end the current fiscal at Rs 1,600 crore.

In order to reduce dependence on their largest selling brand–Officer’s Choice,the company has plans to to introduce two new brands every year.

“We are looking to enhance our product portfolio with the launch of two brands every year,” Roy said.

In the next four years,we would like to increase our share from other brands significantly so that our dependence on Officer’s Choice is reduced,” Roy said.

In the next four years,with the contribution of other brands to the firm’s turnover expected to increase,Officer’s Choice’s share will come down to about 75 per cent from the current 92 per cent,he added.

Commenting on investment plans,Roy said in the next one and a half years,ABD is likely to spend around Rs 250 crore to have its own distillery and acquiring a plant in Maharashtra.

“All the large companies have in-house capacity to make their own spirits,we have none,we are totally outsourcing.

If we have to continue growth then we must have some distillation capacity of at least 15-20 per cent,” Roy said.

“For this we have an acquisition target in Maharashtra,and we also we may put a up a greenfield project in West Bengal,” he added.

The firm could even go in for stake dilution of up to 10 per cent to raise fund for expansion process,Roy said.

“This option will only come into force only after availing all options,including the option of raising of the funds by the promoter,” he added.

The company,which mostly outsources its bottling operations,is also looking to enhance in-house bottling capacity to around 30-35 per cent in the next one year.

It will spend Rs 65 crore on building two bottling plants in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

“We are looking at 30-35 per cent in-house bottling capacity. It would be achieved by the two bottling plants in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal,” Roy said.

The company,which also sells brands like Wodka Gorbatschow and Jolly Roger apart from Officer’s Choice whiskey,sold 12.5 million cases in the last fiscal. It is aiming sell nearly 15.5 million cases in the current fiscal.

According to estimates the current market size of liquor industry in India,excluding beer,is estimated at around 250 million cases.