The maker of Aperol, Campari, Skyy Vodka and Wild Turkey in India said it will bring its Bisquit & Dubouché cognac, Appleton Aged rum, The Glen Grant 21 Arboralis whisky, agave spirit Montelobos Mezcal, Espolon Tequila, a liqueur Frangelico, and bitter aperitif Cynar.
Thomas Mayr, Campari’s marketing director for Asia said in an interview that the company’s primary market remains in the brown spirits portfolio, where it sold 35% more cases in FY22 than the previous year. Other spirits have grown 100% in FY22, but on a lower base. The company is focusing more on the Asia Pacific to fuel growth.
“India is a key market within the Asia Pacific and is also recognized globally as a very important market. We are very bullish about India which is fast growing and fast premiumizing," he said.
“Premiumization has also been an important, sustained trend in the Indian market. Which is why we are introducing higher aged variants of our existing products as well. We are aiming at 75% growth in FY23 in terms of volume and 100% value growth," said Mayr. Campari has about 50 brands in its portfolio across categories worldwide. At a global level, it reported sales of €2,005.7 million for the nine-month period ended 30 September.
Of this, the majority came from the Americas, which grew over 45%. Its Asia Pacific market accounted for €135.9 million, with a 6.8% growth over the same period the year prior.
“We are doubling down on investments in terms of the number of people we have here, the geographies we cover and are adding nine brands to our portfolio from our existing nine brands," added Mayr.
India is primarily a brown spirits market. As part of its expansion of the portfolio, Campari is adding rum, cognac and others. Although small, cognac is a “fast growing" liquor in India and “a small business in a big market, is still very important,“ he added. Some of these brands will begin selling in Goa and then enter other states.
Before the pandemic, its brown spirits (rum, cognac and whisky) versus other spirits portfolio was an 80:20 split, but it has now become an even split of 50:50 in FY22 owing to the amplification of its imported spirits portfolio and also gained from the at-home mixology trend set out during the pandemic.
The company sells about 9,000 cases including of its Old Smuggler whisky and sells about 100,000 cases in the entire brown spirits category. “We had said we would double our business here in 2023, we are on target to achieve that," he added.
From the premium spirits perspective, India has a booming gin market and tequila is also picking up in consumption, the company observed. India’s alcoholic beverages market was $52.5 billion in 2020 and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% between 2020 and 2023, according to the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).
