McDowells to launch a new scotch

Bangalore: McDowell's, a UB Group company, is all set to launch a new scotch brand in India. It also plans to market its popular brand, Kerala Malt, on a national scale.

UB Group vice-president (spirits division) Alok Gupta said the company has decided to launch an extension of its existing brand, Black Dog, as well as another regular scotch brand. “The launch would take place within three-to-six months as the entire exercise is at a research stage.” Black Dog, a 12-year-old scotch, has a two-third’s marketshare in its segment.

The UB Group spirits division, producing 26 million cases a year, is the largest spirits manufacturing and marketing company in India with a marketshare of 35 per cent. Among UB’s other brands are: Bagpiper whisky, (recently launched in a new packaging and available in lookalikes in halves and quarters of its classic quarter bottles), with a marketshare of around 30 per cent; and Signature Rare whisky, a blend of Indian malts and rare aged scotch, and one of the fastest-growing brands in the McDowell portfolio. It sells over 1.5 lakh cases. Signature Rare has grown five times over the last two years and is expected to carve out a marketshare of 17 per cent by the end of the  current year.

McDowell's whisky, launched as an extension of its successful No 1 McDowell's brandy, sells over 3.5 million cases and is growing at the rate of 20 per cent. It expects to cross the 4-million mark by the end of the year.