The firm is focused on growing its craft spirits vertical due to the increasing demand for premium products, Shekhar Swarup, joint managing director of Globus Spirits told Mint.
“Luxury Indian spirits have a long runway now of at least 7-10 years, with the market, albeit small, growing leaps and bounds each year. We’re looking to capture this segment. Indian tastes are becoming more contemporary,” he said. The company’s craft business, which is housed within its parent entity, is now its fastest-growing vertical, Swarup added.
Last September, Globus forayed into single malt with Doaab, and plans to add newer variants to it soon, while still being nimble. It is targeting about 20,000-25,000 cases of the whisky this fiscal year.
The company began as a sugar mill business in the 1950s and later transitioned into grain-neutral alcohol production in the 1990s. It also manufactured Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and ethanol and added a franchise bottling business in the subsequent years.
About half of its revenue today comes from grain-neutral products sold to other companies in the spirits and petroleum sectors, with the remainder coming from its consumer alcohol division, which includes entry-level, premium, and luxury products, he said.
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Demand for premium
Premium spirits priced above ₹2,000 per 750 ml bottle have been gaining traction in major Indian cities, signalling a general shift in consumer preferences toward higher-end liquor since the pandemic.
Many larger listed companies are also focusing more on premium products to achieve better margins. Industry experts attribute this trend to an increasing number of people choosing to drink better at home—prioritising quality over quantity—along with the rising cost of drinking out and changing habits among younger consumers who are drinking less but opting for more premium options.
Globus’ luxury and higher-end brands have seen a 150% year-on-year growth in FY24, Swarup added. “We’ll be creating more flavours or variants for Terai gin as well, which already has two variants as premium and above brands contribute more than 50% to our consumer business revenues,” he said. He did not disclose the number of cases the company intends to target this year. It makes about 1.5 million cases of consumer spirits a month.
“India needs to have its own story and its own spirits, not knock-offs of IMFL spirits. That’s why we’re focused on innovating with our luxury products. We’re not constrained in creating new products,” Swarup said. “We’ve created a subdivision, India Craft Spirit Co., to focus solely on companies that are already established but struggling to innovate. This separate division will drive our innovation strategy and help us strengthen our business in the future.”
Currently, it distributes its spirits across seven states, including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, and plans to expand to another six or seven states over the next two years.
Globus operates distilleries in West Bengal, Bihar, Haryana, and Rajasthan, with a total production capacity of over 287 million bulk litres and bottling facilities capable of handling more than 24.2 million cases annually.
The company’s next step is to launch a beer vertical in partnership with a Trinidad and Tobago-based group, ANSA McAL. In the coming months, Carib Strong Beer will be introduced, starting with sales in the Uttar Pradesh market. There are also plans to expand to other states in the future.
Globus Spirits’ portfolio includes both luxury single malts and gin, as well as premium products such as Oakton barrel-aged whisky, and vodka and rum offerings, with whisky making up about 75% of its consumer portfolio. The remainder comes from other categories.
The company’s products compete with brands like Amrut single malt, Greater Than gin, Blenders Pride whisky, and Magic Moments vodka in the growing craft and premium IMFL segment.
For the nine months ended 31 December, 2024, Globus reported a revenue of ₹2,643 crore, a significant increase from ₹876 crore in the corresponding period in the previous year.
Profit for the period was ₹17 crore, a decline from ₹95.9 crore for the same period in the previous year.
On Wednesday, Globus Spirits shares were trading at ₹1,085.10 on the National Stock Exchange, up 0.2% from its previous close.
Alcobev sales
Research by credit ratings agency, Infomerics Ratings forecasts that the sales of alcoholic beverages in India will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% over the next decade, with states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab being among the largest consumers of liquor in the country.
According to the latest data from the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), which includes Globus among its members, sales of spirits priced above ₹1,000 grew by 48% year-on-year in 2022–23, while those priced under ₹500 increased by just 12%.
The share of Indian-made brands in the ₹1,000-plus category grew from 18% in 2021–22 to 20% in 2022–23, reflecting the growing preference for homegrown premium brands. The spirits industry as a whole sold 385 million cases of 9 litres each in FY23, a 14% increase over FY22 and a 12% rise compared to pre-Covid levels in FY20, according to CIABC data released in July.
