Empty Glasses? Indian wine importers express their views(2)

In the immediate aftermath, I do foresee a slight decline purely driven by this solidarity which right now, is quite important. We had seen a general decrease in sales before the tragedy since the economy had slowed and consumers were being more cautious with their disposable incomes. Given that the festive season is upon us, sales should pick up again towards the end of the month with Christmas and New Year. The economic impact that this has had is, of course, yet to be seen on a larger scale and this over the next few months may also have some influence on the number of people dining out and on spending-patterns as a whole.

In general, I do not anticipate a severe change but slight variations will definitely be evident until things return to normalcy. International traffic into India is likely to decrease and this will surely have an impact. We are a great nation and many of us are discovering the joys of fine wine, I am sure that we will continue to do so with renewed spirit.

Vishal Kadakai from The Wine Park
The recent events have shook the Hospitality industry to the core. The impact of this will be seen for several months all across the board. Following the recent attacks several Government agencies in countries which include USA, Australia and Great Britain, have issued travel advisories for India.

India has also been listed now on the Top 20 most dangerous countries to visit. Several hotels in Mumbai are now only allowing guest with a room reservation to enter into the hotel. Guest who used to walk in for coffee or dinner are now being restricted. Wine lists are being downsized, inventories are being controlled. MNC hotels are getting directives from their principals to spend less and decrease their overheads. In this situation DOFs (Director of Finance) are calling the shots. On top of this the world is in recession. Prior to that, the constant changing of the excise policy and the unusually high taxation structure of wines in Mumbai was already making the wine sale suffer.

Imported wines are predominantly sold in the hotels in Mumbai (due to high taxations). 50% of these sales are driven by expats and foreign nationals. So how can we not see a downward spiral of the wine sales? I am not Harry Potter with a magic wand. And if I was, I would have never let the unimaginable and horrible things happen to Mumbai that happened in these past few days.