Like most other industries, Covid has also significantly impacted India’s alcobev industry, mostly for the worse. It has also made the future roadmap for the alcobev industry quite uncertain.

The ThinkPad Session 1, explored the future of alcobev industry through enriching discourse with some seasoned industry experts. It was moderated by Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO, VBev, and attracted the participation of Vinod Giri, Director General, CIABC (Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies); Arun Kumar, Co-founder and Director, Aspri Spirits; Shivam Ginglani, Director, Kritara Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.; Ravi Gurnani, Director, Sales and Marketing, York Winery; Abhinav Jindal, Founder and CEO of Kimaya Himalayan Beverages LLP; and Vipul Hirani, Co-founder, Crafters Taphouse. They shared their uncommon observations and insights about this burning issue vexing India’s alcobev industry.

Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO, VBev, opened the discussion while noting that 2020 has been a challenging year for most businesses, where most of the industries struggled to maintain profitability, while some industries even struggled to survive.

He acknowledged that the year had been a big setback for India’s alcobeverages industry and as well as for India’s HORECA segment. He however pointed out that most of the states realised that it was not a wise move to impose Covid tax and did withdraw it after some time, which gave reprieve to the industry to some extent.

Overall Business Climate Must Improve

On top of pandemic, the Covid tax came as a huge burden. According to Shivam Ginglani, Director, Kritara Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., the Covid tax
imposed in various Indian states doubled their price of Black
Bow whisky. “The additional cess on alcoholic beverages
made things even more difficult for us,” Shivam pointed out.
According to Shivam, in India’s alco-beverages sector, the lower priced whiskies would recover faster than the premium ones.

He rightly doesn’t view the problem for India’s alco-beverages industry in isolation. “The entire economy should recover. I think unless overall business climate improves, unless other businesses too recover, people wouldn’t have much money to spend on alcoholic beverages,” he asserted.

“But despite the setbacks, we are planning to diversify our portfolio and would launch another whisky,” Shivam affirmed. He pointed out that the last two months were comparatively better for India’s alco-beverages industry than the months from March- September. Shivam also informed that his company was also planning to go more digital in its presence.

Need to Look Forward

Arun Kumar, Co-founder and Director, Aspri Spirits, conceded that  business was hugely disrupted. “Initially, we thought that of it as only a lockdown of one or two months, not realising that how much adverse impact two months of lockdown can have on the business,” Arun candidly expressed.

He said that Aspri Spirits’ business was heavily reliant on on premise sales, which got severely affected. “Fortunately, retail channels were the saviour though people were reluctant to spend,” he observed.

However, there are ripples of optimism in this river of despondency. Though bars and restaurants across India are still having disappointing footfalls, but the last two months have seen encouraging signs of recovery.

The fact that vaccines are on the way comes as a psychological boost to the industry. “We have to gear up to the new realities. We would eventually come out of this crisis. We need to bury the past and look into the future,” Arun asserted while adding that 2021 comes with a new awakening and a new beginning for India’s alco-beverages industry. Arun told that Aspri Spirits would introduce new brands in the coming year.

Arun believes digital is the way forward for India’s alco-beverage business, but at the same time called for more clarity in policies for exploring the digital realm in India’s alco-beverage business. “I think our industry should come forward and craft a policy with the concerned authorities so that we players can explore the digital route with more clarity,” the industry expert observed.

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