Som to acquire beer unit in Maharashtra, set up one in AP

The company, which is poised to become the third-largest brewer in four years from now, after the UB group and Shaw Wallace, will take over one unit in Maharashtra and set up a greenfield beer plant in Andhra Pradesh.

The company's flagship Hunter brand would be pre-dominant in the proposed two new units, a source told Business Standard.

Confirming the reports, SDBL Chairman and Managing Director Jagdish K Arora said: "We have doubled our bottling and brewing capacity from the existing 3.6 million cases per year. We will invest another Rs 25 crore in taking over a Maharashtra unit and Rs 30 crore in a greenfield project in Andhra Pradesh."

Without naming the unit to be bought, Arora said: "In addition to beer, the Maharashtra unit will also brew grain alcohol and varieties of India-made foreign liquor with a 100,000 litre per day capacity. The southern unit will have a brewing capacity of 300,000 cases per month."

He added: "Both the units are likely to take shape in six months from now."

The Maharashtra unit will also add 200 new jobs to the existing 50. The company, which claims to outsmart biggies like UB and Shaw Wallace in the beer market, has posted 41 per cent sales growth in the beer market with 843,283 cases during 2007-08 against 598,341 cases in 2006-07.

Of this, the Hunter brand of the company showed growth with sales of 770,334 cases. Moreover, the firm sold 109,365 cases of Hunter extra strong premium segment beer in 2007-08 as against 68,618 cases in the previous year.

"Due to its taste and strength the Hunter brand has grown 63 per cent in the Delhi market as against 5-7 per cent industry growth," Arora said.

The industry continues to be driven by strong beer sales.

SDBL has also showed 40 per cent increase in draught beer sales in Madhya Pradesh, led by the Hunter brand.

SDBL was the first company to launch its draught beer in the MP market in 2005. Hunter Extra Strong Premium beer comes in two variants (Bottle 650 ml & 325 ml) and Cans (500 ml & 325 ml).

With a vibrant presence in 13 states of India through a strong distribution network, Som was the first to introduce the concept of strong beer in India with the launch of its flagship brand Hunter. Legend, Genius, Sunny, Rocky, Black Fort, Grapine and Awara are the other brands in the group's brand portfolio.