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Alcoholic Beverages in India

1. Introduction

Alcoholic Beverages looks after the manufacturing, distribution and sale of alcoholic drinks and

beverages. It is one of the most criticized industries in the world since 1990s because of the

harmful effects of the products manufactured by it and the policy of marketing deployed by it

by using pharmaceutical industry and personnel to emphasize upon the health benefits of

alcohol. The Indian Alcoholic Beverages is amongst the fastest growing industry in the world

and occupies the 3rd position in comparison to the same industry in other countries. This

industry has seen a major shift of consumption from the indigenous country liquor to Indian

Manufactured Foreign Liquor because of the rising per capita income of Indian people and a

change in their lifestyle.

2. Type of Market

The Alcoholic Beverages in India is a quintessential example of oligopoly market (refer Fig. 2.1)

witnessing presence of giant MNCs like Diageo, Pernord Ricard, Heineken, SAB Mil ler, et cetera.

The products manufactured can be divided into the following categories:

IMFL (Indian Manufactured foreign liquor)

Foreign liquor bottled in India (BII)

Foreign liquor bottled in Origin (BIO)

Beer

Wine

Country liquor which includes cheap and spiced indigenous liquor


Although Beer, Country liquor and IMFL occupies almost the same market share in volume but

due to high price of IMFL it occupies almost 65% of market share in terms of value.

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Total market size of this industry in India is about $35 billion and is also showing a growth trend

of 8% per annum.

Another feature of oligopoly that is quite evident in Indian liquor industry is a unique form of

elasticity. IMFL and beer is showing an almost constant growth of around 8% CAGR per annum

but the growth isn’t divided uniformly over the products of different prices. For instance the

growth is considerably higher in cheap to medium category of IMFL but the growth of high end

products is comparatively negligible. The uniqueness in this type of elasticity lies in the fact that

if the prices are made higher, the demand doesn’t fall proportionately but the consumers shift

to cheaper products leading to a mass abandonment of the recently price hiked one.

This form of high elasticity results in the market giants locking horns with each other as each

one of them try continuously to drop their prices for retaining and increasing their market

shares.

Fig. 2.1 (Pictorial depiction of how the number of firms and influence of each firm vary

across different types of market structures)


Table 2.1 (Comparison between Perfect market structureand Indian Alcoholic Beverages)

Characterstic Perfect Competitive Market

Indian Alcoholic Beverages Market

Buyers and Sellers This type of market includes Infinite number of buyers and sellers.

Although there are many players in the market, yet they are not infinite in any

sense and neither are buyers.

Entry and Exit barriers In perfect markets there are no entry or exit barriers.

In Indian Alcoholic Beverages there are many barriers to

both entry and exit of new players ranging from

government policies to the

presence of giants in the market already.

Information Both the manufacturers and buyers have full information regarding the manufacturing, quality, pricing and utility of the product.

Although manufacturers do have some of the information regarding manufacturing, quality, pricing and utility even to the fullest but the buyers are not that much aware of the same.

Homogeneity The quality and other characterstics of the products

do not vary from one manufacturer to the other.

The variation is quality and characterstics of the product

is substantial between different manufacturers and

even acts as the driving force in luring customers to buy the

products.

Rational buyers Buyers are completely

rational in making decision as what to buy based on the

information available to them.

This holds true in this

industry. The buyers are rational and make almost the

best decision in buying of the product

Impact of a single player In perfect competition a single

player cannot make any substantial impact on the

market owing to the infinite number of the players

available.

In Indian Alcoholic Beverages,

due to the presence of giant players, even a single player is

capable of making huge impact to the market

structure and even its size.

In India the presence of Alcoholic Beverages is having a characterstic of an organized market

but illicit activities are dominant especially in the case of country liquor. From the method of

production to the distribution and even pricing are majorly done outside the spectrum of

government laws and owing to its large market value of around Rs 2350 Crores it impacts the

economy substantially. Black marketing and hidden marketing is highly prevalent in this

industry because of the presence of several regional mafias in the distribution and

manufacturing of country liquor.



3. Government regulations

The Indian liquor industry is characterized by heavy government regulations, may they be legal

or economical.

3.1. Legal

-This industry is a State affair and hence every manufacturer needs to get licenses in every state

they need to operate in and therefore there are few players which are literally national.

-Separate licenses are required for production, bottling and distribution of the product, making

it a herculean task for a not so well connected and impatient player.

-FDI in this industry is 100% and when the case arises in which the owner is a foreign company

but the investor is Indian, then the investment will require a prior approval of Foreign

Investment Promotion Board and it will be for a given licensed capacity. To increase the

investment, the investor will need a completely new approval

-The licensing is done under the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1956.


3.2. Economical

- Excise duty, Sales tax, Value Added Tax and various other duties impacts the pricing of

the products to a great extent.

- Retail and distribution is strictly controlled by the government. Even the marketing of

the products is banned, leading to surrogate marketing. Table 3.1 below shows the

surrogate marketing tactics used by different liquor producers.

Table 3.1 (Different alcoholic beverages companies and the surrogate marketing done

by them)


(compiled by the author)

4. Market scenario

The Indian Alcoholic Beverages is an industry involving high risks.This risk originates

from high level of duties and taxation imposed on the industry by the government. This

has a major impact on price flexibility leading to not so strong financial profiles and

below par margins.

The key factor in making a liquor manufacturer a successful player in the market is the

ability to govern and control its operations in various states across the country when the

duties governing the liquor industry varies from state to state. Further, molasses, an

ingredient used to manufacture Indian spirits, is another highly sensitive issue in the

country and as state governments generate major revenues from this industry therefore

the taxes and duties imposed on alcohol manufactures are unlikely to reduce. Although

various commitments are made to the WTO recently and new multinational brands are

emerging in the market but thanks to the heavy duty and taxation, the market isn’t

flooded with inferior quality imports owing to its fears of high risks in the market.

Although as discussed above, there are a lot of hurdles if one wants to come out with

flying colors in Indian Alcoholic Beverages but certain key features are also there which

could help the players gaining an edge over each other:

Brand



A strong brand name doesn’t only help manufacturers to maintain their market

share but also allows them to charge premium rates. Their stronghold acts as a

barrier for new brands which could threaten them and is also a major factor in

their expansion and growth. The strength of their brand name is measured

according to the “millionaire brands” they own (it refers to the brands which

sells in the magnitude of a million cases every year) and the actual volume sold.

Geographical diversity

As this industry is marred by umpteen number of laws which varies from state to

state, so a player having market share and stronghold in many states holds

greater advantage. The advantage is that the change of the policy of a single

state doesn’t effects the company to a great extent. And moreover the sale of

products to the Canteen Stores Depot of the defense services adds up their

market share as CSDs are a major role player in increasing the market share of

alcohol companies.

Product diversity

The diversity of the products manufactured also plays a major role in defining a

company’s standpoint in the market. The presence of the company in various

alcoholic products gives the company an advantage of withstanding the change

of preference by customers, moreover the presence of the company owned

products in different price segments also helps the company in maintaining its

market share even when price hikes are in effect and further the company needs

to have a huge share in whiskey market as it is the fastest growing sector in

liquor industry and also holds the biggest market share.


5. International Impact Indian Alcoholic Beverages attracts a lot of foreign attention. The demand of whiskey is

declining around the world while the demand of beer is increasing, but as seen in Fig.

5.1, the scenario in India is quite opposite, hence, India has become a cynosure for giant

manufacturers with strong whiskey brands. This factor of the rise in demand

experiences a synergistic effect by the large amount of disposable income in the

subcontinent. Further the sale of beer in India is expected to grow in the near future,

reason being the liberalization of beer products (de-linking with IMFL), which has

already been implemented in some Indian states like U.P., Himachal Pradesh and


Maharashtra. Wine industry is also looking forward to follow the lead of beer products

in the upcoming years.

Fig. 5.1 (The year wise growth in consumption of Whiskey in comparison to that of beer

in India)

Year


Big multinational players like Diageo and Allied Domecq have already made a place in the Indian

market. They have also started to introduce their promising scotch brands by entering the

market as joint ventures following the BII route. However, their leading and elsewhere highly

successful brands are made available through the BOI route whose sales returns can only rise if

the duties and taxes imposed on them are reduced substantially.

Joint ventures with powerful parent MNCs have advantages in many areas:

-they have a big brand name to relate to

-advance technology for blending is easily accessible

-they have the potential of worldwide campaigning

-they enjoy top of the class managerial leadership

Regardless of all these advantages, however, foreign players haven’t been able to make a

substantial difference in the business of domestic players, reasons being:

- Concentration on high end customers

- Myopic focus on niche

- Relatively recent arrival in the market

6. Consumer trends:

-The IMFL category is mostly dominated by whiskey. India is the largest market of

whiskey in the world and 6 out of 7 top selling brands worldwide (by volume) are Indian.

-In case of the beer category,strong beer is more preferred by the Indians,almost 80% of

beer sold belongs to the strong section.

-Indian Alcoholic Beverages has also shown a unique market feature, statistically it

appears that the market is attracted more towards better quality and high costs.This key

feature is termed as Premiumization, towards which major players are working

indefatigably.

-White spirits have shown the fastest growth in the past few years, with vodka showing

a growth rate of more than 25% per annum.

-Wine is the slowest growing category in India with Maharashtra and Karnataka as the

leading manufacturer as well as consumer of the same owing to the taxation laws in

these states.



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