Praveena Sharma

Bangalore: United Spirits Ltd (USL) is placing high stakes on the prestige segment of liquors, especially its Mc-Dowell’s No 1 brand of whisky.

The spirits company, owned by billionaire Vijay Mallya, has three brands under the prestige segment — McDowell’s No 1,Royal Mist and Directors’ Special Black (DSP Black).

With 30% growth, McDowell’s No 1 is the fastest growing brand of the company, which has also beaten the industry average of 26%.

Market share of the brand increased by 200 basis points (bpts) in FY08, climbing from 51% in FY07 to 53%. Encouraged by such an exponential growth, USL is now aiming at a 60% share for brand by 2011.

Mathew Xavier, business head, United Spirits Ltd, said, “The prestige segment has been the most profitable for us in the FY08 with a significant growth of brands in that segment. Our vision now is to take the market share of McDowell’s No 1 to 60% by 2011.”

In a survey of UK’s Pash in FY 07,McDowell’s No 1 overtook dairy brand Amul as the largest FMCG brand (in value terms) in India. Its retail sales was valued at $1.9 billion against Amul’s $1.5 billion.

But it’s not Amul that McDowell’s No 1 is striving to beat. Its aim is to take on rival brands such as Royal Stag.

For this, USL has redesigned the bottle and packaging of McDowell’s No 1. UK’s design firm Claessens International Ltd spent 24 months to reshape McDowell’s No 1 to give it “colour vibrancy, international feel and youthfulness” to draw more consumers into its fold. The company has already launched the new McDowell’s No 1 in Punjab and Maharastra and plans to roll it out nationally in the next 4-5 months.

“We have had astounding success in the last six weeks since we have launched the new McDowell’s No 1 in Punjab and Maharastra,” said Xavier.

Analyst Vijay Chugh of J P Morgan says USL will be able to easily expand its market share to 60% by 2011. “Every player in the sub-segments - super premium, premium and prestige - is striving to grow its market but it is going to difficult.

However, it is possible for USL’s McDowell’s No 1 to reach 60% because of its well-established distribution channel and infrastructure.

Besides growing the overall market, it (McDowell’s No 1) may eat into marginal player’s market share to reach its target (of 60% market share),” says Chugh.

Source : DNA