Gin, traditionally considered a fuddy-duddy alcohol category, is now witnessing a double-digit growth in India, thanks to a new-found love for the beverage among young consumers because of its versatility, said alcobev (alcohol and beverage) industry experts.
Gin, a distilled alcoholic drink that derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries, has traditionally been considered an ‘old man’s drink’ or ‘ladies’ choice’ and accounted only for a tiny share of the country’s alcobev market until a couple of years ago is now seeing significant growth in the country, according to them.
Gearing up to spearhead a gin revolution in the country is a group of five professionals comprising Gurpreet Singh, formerly head of marketing at UB, Nirmal Rajani, formerly head of sales, South India for Allied Breweries and Distilleries, Rohan Patnaik, who formerly held leadership roles at HUL and Diageo, Raghunandan Balakrishna, formerly co-founder of Kamatan Farm Tech and Ramesh Govindan a MITian exposed to AI & ML and worked with PwC, EY and Accenture earlier. Cumulatively the team has over 100 years of experience in alcobev industry.
The team co-founded an entity, World of Brands (WoB), and recently launched an all-new gin brand, `Great Indian Gin’ (GIG), under the customisation guidance of master blender N.J. Menon, who concocted it for the Indian palate.
Gin usually occupies only a minuscule share, less than 1%, in the alcobev market whereas Vodka and white rum are 6 to 7 times larger than Gin. But in the last few years, Gin has been the fastest-growing segment in the country’s alcobev sector.
The category of Gin has transformed from being perceived as an old-fashioned drink to becoming the category of choice for youngsters around the world and similar trends are prominently seen in India as well, as per Gurpreet Singh, co-founder and director, WoB, Mr. Singh.
“There is a new found love for Gin in India and the segment is now witnessing strong double-digit growth, for the first time in the country. We see this trend to continue,’‘ he commented.
According to him, Gin adoption by popular mixologists, pop culture driven by popular web series and celebrity endorsements have lent visibility and credibility to the segment, and all these have resulted in an era of a Gin renaissance.
Although the country has several local made gin brands already, the price difference between these brands was too huge as there wasn’t any credible brand between ₹750 and ₹2,000 and therefore GIG with a pricing of ₹1,530 (Karnataka) filled this gap still positioning itself in the entry-level premium segment, claimed team WoB.
For easier access and better market penetration, the company also introduced smaller packs in 180ml and 60ml.
Mr. Gurpreet further said, “We are planning and actively working towards building a full portfolio across the high alcohol spirits and low alcohol segments. We have a few more flavours in the pipelines for launch under our Great Indian Gin brand.’‘
Hoskote-based Chamundi Winery & Distillery, bottler for Diageo’s premium white spirit vodka, as well as their entry-level and premium scotch whiskies, is also bottling the Great Indian Gin for World of Brands.
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