Wheat beers loved by young drinkers

Young consumers in India are now drinking lot of wheat beers. For the millennial, multiple choices in beer styles are available in the Indian market presently, feels Sudip Mazumder, Managing Partner, ACME Consultants.

Young drinkers in India are indeed trying new styles of beers as there are multiple choices available to them, however, lager still remains biggest category in India, opines  Sudip Mazumder. “India is land of flavours and now our consumers are ready to try new flavours and styles of beer. To catch on this new taste for flavours, now everybody worth his salt operating in India’s beer industry is seen launching wheat beer as this style of beer is most loved by the millennials,” elaborates Mazumder. Even microbreweries are giving youngsters good opportunity to sample different styles of beers, he feels. Sudeep says nowadays every new beer floating into the Indian market is projected as craft beers as there is no set definition. “But Fuller’s is a real craft beer brand with over 300 years of heritage of brewing quality beer,” he avers. Fuller’s beers have only ever been brewed in one location, — the famous Griffin brewery in West London. Fuller’s export their beers to 80 countries. Besides lager, ACME Consultants is marketing Fuller’s brand of beers in India, which were launched in Mumbai as recently as 20th February 2019. “Currently, we have introduced Fuller’s London Pride (Ale), Fuller’s IPA, Fuller’s Honey Dew, Fuller’s Black Cab Stout and are about to introduce a lager Frontier in Pune,” reveals Mazumder. These beers are priced in Maharashtra from Rs. 350 to Rs.530. “London Pride is also available in 5 litre keg format at Rs 5,024, in limited quantity,” he says. These above-mentioned brands are available in Mumbai & Pune and within the next six months they will have a presence in Goa, Chennai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh & Delhi, and maybe even in Gurgaon. According to him, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are the main markets for expensive beers in India. He says that results have shown that young drinkers in India, who are trying various styles of beers, like Fuller’s IPA & Fuller’s Honey Dew a lot. This is leading to repeat orders.

Launching Variants

Sharing details about the variants his company is launching in 2019, he says: “We are going to introduce Fuller’s Porters and Fuller’s Vintage Ale in 2019. We have our Fuller’s Black Cab Stout in this category. Even Fuller’s Vintage Ale will fall in this category.” On the strategy of going for a tie-up to make its own beer brand abroad to attract attention, he is quick to respond that it has only worked for Bira till now, while others are merely following this trend. “Bira has adopted a 360 degree marketing strategy and that is why it got success. It was not just because of getting the bottling done abroad,” he asserts. On beer consumption in India, he goes on to say that imported beer consists of less than 5 percent of the entire beer market in India. Sharing his insights on the forecast for India’s beer market for the next five years, Mazumder signs off saying: “I foresee a year-on-year 10 percent growth in the overall beer market of India” The only hindrance to this is the government stand in increasing the duties of mild beers. “Many Indian consumers are now eagerly waiting to try new styles of beers and we must give them good choice of styles in beer,” he says. The Managing Partner shared that Michael Campbell Lamerton, the Head of Export, was visiting Mumbai soon to help with the launch, and he was very excited about the long-term prospects for the beers in India