Swc To Relocate Composite Distillery

Shaw Wallace and Co is seeking to relocate its Bengal Distilleries composite distillery unit at Bhadrakali in the Hooghly district in Bengal to a new site at Mouza Dankuni in the same district.

The relocation would also involve setting up a new brewery and the total cost of the exercise is estimated at Rs 65 crore.

SWC has sought permission from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) for the relocation, together with all the applicable incentives.

The Bhadrakali distillery manufactures a wide range of fast moving Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) brands like Antiquity Whisky, Royal Challenge Whisky, Directors Special Whisky, Moghul Monarch whisky, Olde Adventurer Rum, Mischief Vodka, Karmazov Vodka and other brands.

The SWC plan for shifting the distillery involves:

Installing a primary distillation plant with 40 KL capacity per day

Installing a secondary distillation plant with the same capacity

An effluent treatment plant having a capacity to match with the breweries and distilleries capacity

Shifting the bottling capacities phasewise

Installing facilities for malt spirit maturation

Installing a modern 2 lakh HL per annum brewery

Bengal Distilleries is now located at Bhadrakali for the past 48 years on an area of about 2.3 acres. Within this area, there is also an effluent treatment plant. But one-third of the factory is being used by this plant, causing an acute space shortage.

The Mauza Dankuni location would be spread across 30 acres and SWC has confirmed to WBIDC that there would be no loss of employment by way of the relocation. In fact, an additional 100 additional persons would need to be employed to run the brewery, SWC has said. It also said additional employment opportunity by way of transportation, loading unloading, housekeeping and packaging for another 100 persons would be created through the relocation.

The additional revenue generation would also be form excise duty, pass fee, and would increase to Rs 4.35 crore for an envisaged production of 12 lakh cases of IMFL, the company said.