UB group to overtake Diageo on annual sales: Mallya

Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya has said that his United Breweries group is set to overtake the world's largest spirit maker Diageo in terms of annual sales.

In an interview to BBC Scotland, Mallya said that sales of UB group has outtripped those of Diageo and the figures would be made public in about two months.

Mallya further said that this was despite India accounting for 90 per cent of UB group's global sales, whereas Diageo sells in over 100 countries.

"That shows you the scale of opportunity in India... But sitting in India, we'll look at Asia Pacific and clearly the fastest growing region in the world," Mallya told BBC.

"I'm not overly excited about being in the mature western markets with single digit growth. I would rather focus my energies where I could look forward to robust double digit growth," Mallya said.

Speaking about Indian market, Mallya said that his country's economic rise was not temporary.

He also spoke against reductions in 150 per cent tariffs on Scotch whisky entering the Indian market.

"If you want India to lower tariffs and facilitate more free trade, then I think Indian producers also have a right to enter the European market," Mallya said.

UB group's Rs 5,700-crore United Spirits is currently the second-largest spirits company in the world after Diageo and largest in India.

The UB Group has annual sales of over $4 billion through its presence in brewing, distilling, real estate, engineering, aviation and other sectors.

London-based Diageo had annual sales of over 9 billion pounds in the last fiscal ended June 2010.

United Spirits also owns Whyte and Mackay, a leading distiller of Scotch whisky, which it acquired in 2007 for about 600 million pounds.

Previously, there have been talks about a possible deal between United Spirits and Diageo, but the deal later went sour.

In a separate interview with Herald Scotland, Mallya said that it was Diageo that began the talks.

"Diageo started talking to me not because I needed Diageo. Diageo desperately wanted distribution in the Indian market. They were talking to me to buy a small (14.99 per cent) stake in United Spirits," he said.