A BlockBuster Story in India’s beer business

BlockBuster beer from American Brew Crafts Pvt. Ltd. achieved first year sale of a million cases, bringing the relatively new company under the industry spotlight. Led by the vision of Vijayawada-based Ajay Sunkara, the young company with a huge potential already has presence in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Puducherry, Kerala, and Andaman with intention to expand towards the US, Europe, Africa and South-East Asia by mid 2023.

Logical Vision

Talking about what motivated them to enter the beer sector and how has been their journey so far, Ajay Sunkara, Director, American Brew Crafts Pvt. Ltd., said, “We three realised that there is a glaring gap between consumer wants and what is available in India’s beer market. The beers do evolve with time as well as the consumer palates in the west, whereas the same evolution is not as prominent in India. We wanted to address the huge untapped potential in the beer market.”

The purpose of establishing American Brew Crafts was to bring international standard brews within reach of the Indian consumers,” Ajay put it succinctly.

Ajay Sunkara is a seasoned serial entrepreneur. He has deep experience in developing novel concepts and building innovative companies in the areas of robotics, IT and computer systems, manufacturing, entertainment, education and food and beverage. Vijayawada-based Ajay has experience of leading businesses in several countries.

Ajay feels that with a rapidly growing economy and a global outlook,the Indian consumers deserve more and the consumption of alcoholic beverages too when compared to the global numbers, has huge potential in India.

Impeccable Infrastructure, Quality Ingredients

American Brew Crafts Pvt. Ltd.’s strong vision is matched by its solid infrastructural framework. It has two fully automated breweries in Sangareddy district, Hyderabad and Ramachandrapuram (Andhra Pradesh).Both the breweries produce 6 million cases of beer a year. The Hyderabad facility, located on the outskirts of the cyber city, is spread across 17 acres.

“The breweries are equipped with top-notch German machinery and are run by the best of the best from the brewing circuit. We only use ingredients of the highest quality, RO water and imported hops to brew our products. Our Brewing Head is an industry veteran with over 30 years of brewing experience and was affiliated with many big beer brands globally,” he added while discussing the salient features of the company’s breweries’ infrastructure.

Quality is not only a product of impeccable infrastructure but also of the ingredients.The company imports hops from the United States and use locally sourced rice, barley, malts and RO water, which of course, is expected to contribute to the quality of beer/s from the company.

Sustainable Edge

However, with American Brew Crafts growth is not without its share of sustainability. “The breweries of American Brew Crafts employ 100 percent local work force to ensure a sense of belongingness and family and bulk of our ingredients like rice, malt, sugar, etc. are being sourced locally within the state for each of our breweries, which have fully automated international standard machinery installed for efficiency,” avers the serial entrepreneur.

Expansion Plans

BlockBuster beer, which was initially launched in Andhra Pradesh under the Ultra variant in 2017 and subsequently in Telangana in 2021, is currently available in the lager, strong, Ultra lager and Ultra Strong variants. Besides the super hit BlockBuster beer, the company has also aired a beer brand named Flying Monkey. This premium offering will include variants like IPA, Stout and flavoured beers under its ambit.

“We had sales numbers of 75K cases in 2018 and closed the year 2021 with a total sale of 1.5 million cases. We have expansion plans to produce 12 million cases in a year,” disclosed Ajay while talking of their ambitious plans.

They also have plans of launching their range of seltzer, wheat ale and flavoured beer within this financial year.

Innovate to Grow

While discussing the gaps with reference to availability of beer styles and brands in India, he explained, “Breweries in India should be willing to adapt, engage and innovate to meet the future demands. The consumers are now more quality conscious and are willing to try newer and more exciting brews. Moreover, with the advent of microbreweries in a big way
it has now become crucial to keep up with the changing needs and palates of the global consumers, who have sizeable presence in India.”

Ajay sounded quite optimistic of the beer trends unfolding in India’s alcobev business environment and across the world as a whole. “Recent times have seen a lot of new beer variants being accepted and consumed. With the emergence of new-age cloud breweries and microbreweries in the metros and tier-II cities, there are now hundreds of options for the evolved beer consumers. Variants like IPA, wheat, stout and fruit infused brews have become a regular affair in the current market,” he observed.

While talking about the evolution of the beer market he predicts that,the future is all about low-calorie seltzers. A majority of today’s alcobev consumers are health conscious and prefer to put in those extra miles after a social gathering. Seltzers provide the best of both worlds.

“The future is unknown and exciting, but we do know that consumer palates will continue to evolve and beverage companies will need to constantly innovate in response to that. The staples like lager and wheat ale will remain but the consumers will now more persistently and regularly ask for newer beer variants,” he said.