The Glass is Full

There are two main distribution channels that bring whisky to the masses,these two channels are referred to as “on premise” (hotels,restaurants,bars,etc) and “off premise” (thekas,liquor stores). The real competition,I am told,is off premises,in the thekas. Price-sensitive Indians still prefer to drink at home,avoiding the liquor mark-ups at restaurants and hotels. They evidently also like to drink at the movies. A friend who worked with a liquor company told me that miniatures had shown a remarkable upswing in sales. And it isn’t courtesy their cuteness quotient,it’s because they are “sneakable” and not easily detected in pat-downs or handbag searches. People love to drink at the movies,he informs me,slip a miniature into your jumbo Coke and you’re on.

The wedding season gets going after the Navratras (around mid-October); which means that panic buying will start around mid-September. It’s something the booze companies look forward to. After long months of appealing to the sellers,they are now in a position to dictate terms and indulge in a little arm-twisting. Nothing too dire,just a mere passing on of an uglier sibling with a coveted one.

A couple of years ago,one major whisky brand offered a free case of their top seller with orders of a slow-moving dark rum that hasn’t ever taken off in India. At a time when every bottle counts (whisky season),sellers grab all they can get. The hook being that the money made on the sure-to-sell whisky will offset the slow-moving rum. It’s a regular industry practice to ride your fast movers.

But that’s the off premises stuff. On premises,it gets a bit more complicated. The bigger the restaurant,the more extensive its bar list. This is where the war gets more tactical,each company has a network of look-out guys in every establishment they service. Some of these look-out guys may even be double agents — conduits through whom information passes from one competitor to another.

The spy is an on-the-ground guy — he’s got his finger on the pulse,keeping track of what the competition is doing,the latest promotion,what tent cards (they display advertisements or special offers) are placed on tables,and who is coming in. This he passes on to his handler,the exchanges are usually quid pro quo. As far as I know,money doesn’t change hands — the rate of exchange is liquor. As one person put it,“It’s usually a case of you pour my drink,and I’ll pour my drink for you”.

It’s tough for liquor companies,they aren’t allowed to advertise. Are those bubbly soda commercials that fool nobody even permitted anymore?

And as the young sales guy confided,the other day at an event they sponsored,pictures of the celeb with the company standee peeking cheekily behind her were released to the media. That sort of publicity is a delight for most people,but not for these guys. Next up,excise,notices,warnings,not pleasant. He’s even getting me depressed — pushing this stuff in this prohibition-like atmosphere has got to be tough,I commiserate. However,the mention of the word prohibition has quite an unexpected impact on my contact. He suddenly lights up,it reminds him of Gujarat,he tells me with a faraway look in his eyes,a small smile teasing his lips. “A very coveted territory”,he says,“people drink there like nowhere else….”

I wonder why.

Advaita Kala is an author and has worked in restaurants and kitchens in India and abroad