UB’s Four Seasons Wines to go global in three months

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya's Four Seasons Wines, part of the United Breweries (UB) group, would invest Rs 100 crore over the next three to five years for scaling up production. The company wants to produce a whopping 1.2 crore bottles annually and is eyeing exports.

The UB group has two wine verticals – United Vintners (UVL) and Four Seasons Wines (FSWL) – both subsidiaries of another group company, United Spirits. UVL’s business is based on sale of imported wines from places such as France, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, while FSWL produces and sells domestically produced red and white wines, in the range of Rs 150-550, under the Four Seasons and Zinzi brands.

“We would like to scale up production to one million cases over the next three to five years, which would involve a total investment of about Rs 100 crores,” Abhay Kewadkar, chief winemaker, business head and director of FSWL, told Financial Chronicle. One case contains 12 bottles of 750 ml each. The liquor maker has a winery in Baramati (Maharashtra), which has a capacity of one million bottles per year. It also plans to set up a winery near Bangalore within the next two years.

Kewadkar, however, did not divulge details on target sales and revenues. “Financial year 2009-10 will be a first full year of operations and we will be in a position to share figures in terms of sales and volumes at the end of the year,” he said.

FSWL will also start exporting its wine brands this year. “Exports will commence within the next three months,” he added.

Kewadkar, however, remained cautious of the growth prospects this year. He said the domestic wine industry is facing a big challenge not only because of the economic slowdown but other bottlenecks as well. “Consumers are obliged to drink wines manufactured only in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka owing to inordinately high duties on wines coming from outside the state,” he added.