INDIAN beer is quickly getting bigger than just a few drops in the ocean that is the European beer market. From an appropriate accompaniment to Indian food in restaurants across Britain, some Indian beers are beginning to stand alone on the shelves of supermarket chains. And they are looking to a smaller but classier market than the Heinekens, Budweisers and Carlsbergs of the world.
It took Indian food to launch Indian beer. Through more than 8,000 restaurants across Britain and now through ready-to-cook meals, Indian food in Britain is a 62.5 billion pound a year business; and Indian beer has kept company, with an annual estimated sale up to 15 million bottles (330 ml). Kingfisher, pushed strongly by Vijay Mallya, is quite the market leader with unrivalled sales in draught beer to top sale of bottled beer. Cobra is in close pursuit.
Lal Toofan came in like a storm after aggressive marketing by managers who broke away from the Kingfisher makers. It was a storm that died down quite suddenly after the returns failed to match the resources burnt up on pushing Lal Toofan. Now another new Indian beer, Kama Sutra, has entered, sedately but steadily.
Britain's annual 102 litres per head beer consumption makes it only the seventh largest consumer in Europe, and producers of Indian beer in Britain are looking to converts to their drink in Europe. Sales of Kama Sutra are small, but says Umesh Parmar who launched it: "We already sell more in Europe than in Britain." And Karan Blillimoria of Cobra says Indian beer is continuing its piggyback ride on Indian food through Europe too.
After the British boom, Indian restaurants are coming up rapidly in Europe, with several hundred so far in France, more than 200 in Holland, a little over a hundred in Germany and now a growing number also in Italy and other countries. In formal acknowledgement of the naans and chicken korma that launched Indian beer in Britain, Kingfisher sponsored the National Curry Day in Britain on November 10.
Indian beers like Cobra and Kingfisher are about twice as expensive as Heineken or Carlsberg in a pub. But as they are being marketed as an upmarket treat, you have to be able to afford it. Competing with beers like Becks, Indian beers are looking at the top end of the market. Enough bottles are getting picked off the supermarket shelves to encourage Mallya, Blillimoria and Parmar to believe they will get there.
At the UBSN offices, Brian Dozey is convinced that Kingfisher is it. "Sales are going extremely well," he says. Kingfisher is selling now in 15 European countries and is searching for more market outlets through a network of more than 50 distributors, says Dozey.
Obviously Eastern exotica with a friendly western taste sells. "We are pushing Kama Sutra as a fun product," says Parmar. "So we have been very careful how we project our image." Now someone has launched a liquor called Kama Sutra, another has opened a Kama Sutra restaurant, and one chef has also launched a dish called Kama Sutra. "You see, we are doing something good. Others have put millions of pounds into their products. We have spent peanuts but we have sales because of our name," says Parmar.
Not just, though. Parmar owns Pama Foods and Wines, one of the largest distributors of foods and wines in Britain. Through that distribution chain Parmar has a ready niche for his product, and too many failed Indian beers in Britain have had to discover too late the power of the distribution network in the beer business. "That's where the dirtiest games are played out," a senior manager pushing one Indian beer said.
The war between Kingfis-her and Lal Toofan, which became quite popular in Indian restaurants, was only the most visible among these. Lal Toofan finally lost the support of the distributors. Beneath all the frothy success Indian beer-makers claim, survival and success are about undercutting one another, even cutting others out. "There is too much politics in the Indian beer business," says Parmar.
A year or so of sales of Indian beers, or British beers under Indian names, makes it still too early to say how far Indian beer sales will go. The growth can extend into quaint little niches and stop. Becoming global brands for most could be just a pipedream.
