Officer’s Choice snatched top slot from Bagpiper

 

            Liquor baron Vijay Mallya owned Bagpiper Whisky had to end its seven year long record on the largest selling brand in the field of Indian spirits brand market. Eventually it is falling behind its smaller rival brand Officer’s Choice, which is owned by Allied Blenders and Distillers (ABD). Bagpiper ruled the market for the most of the part of the last decade, but it piped down to a shocking negative (single-digit) growth in 2011, said two very well-known digests of top selling alcobev brands globally.

            The latest estimates of a New York based Impact International and International Wine and Research (ISWR), made Officer’s Choice clear topper as the largest selling Indian spirit brands, ahead of the previous topper Bagpiper.

            Officer’s Choice, which is owned by Mr. Kishore Chabria, saw a huge growth of 7.5%, which leading to a whooping 15.8 million cases, while its rival’s number isn’t that great. Eventually Bagpiper declined 5.9% to 15.6 million cases during the last fiscal year, said ISWR.

            “We have built the future of Officer’s Choice brand, pulling it to the top slot from fourth largest selling Indian spirit brand in just four years only,” said ABD Vice-Chairman & Chief Executive Mr. Deepak Roy, who is feeling very proud for this tremendous achievement.

              Though there is some good news also for the Mallya’s company. There is something to cheer for them. United Spirits (USL), which is the world’s largest spirits marketer by volume, made efforts to check the advance of Pernod Richard with new brand variants of McDowell’s No. 1 and Antiquity whiskies showed promise. McDowell’s Platinum has reported an awesome 36% volume growth to touch 1 million cases, while Antiquity Blue made a 35.1% growth jump to 4,35,000 cases.