'Indian single malts are helping the entire category grow'

In fact, they have been benefiting from the trend, with the entire single malt whiskey category growing as a whole. 

For instance, Scotland-based William Grant & Sons, which sells brands like Glenfiddich, Grant's, The Balvenie, and Monkey Shoulder, among others, is expecting several newer consumers to enter the single malts category from India, which will eventually help the company grow its businesses further.

Sachin Mehta, the company's country director for India operations, said each one of the Indian single malts, whenever they've been launched, have been well received in India. “Premium malts have been doing very well on the whole as a category. India consumes 250-300 million cases of whisky (in a year). So, in a way, Indian malts are doing a great service to the entire industry," he told Mint.

“They're also helping people upgrade from scotch and other blended whiskies to try something newer, more refined. We haven't seen any reduction in sales since the time these brands have become popular. I am looking at this very positively," he added. 

Compared to the usual variants of whiskies aged up to 18 years that the company was selling in the country since it started operations here a decade ago, William Grant is now introducing many more rare single malt variants to the country. 

This is because India has emerged as one of the top five markets for William Grant globally, across most of its portfolio of brands, especially whiskies. The company also makes the popular Hendrick's gin.

In high spirits

India is the largest consumer of brown spirits like whisky. Rising incomes, increased awareness, and a plethora of new choices, are leading to a shift in the consumption pattern of tipplers. 

As per industry data from drinks and beverages consultancy IWSR, the overall single malts business in India is pegged to grow the maximum within the whisky category, at 5.5%, till 2027. In contrast, the entire alcoholic beverages industry is expected to grow only 3.7% during the period. 

Moreover, the entire whisky category is expected to grow from $210 million in 2022 to $480 million, in 2027. Across different spirits, it is whisky which is expected to dominate the alco-bev sector, with approximate sales of 243 million cases, accounting for 63% of the total spirits' market. 

While still at a nascent stage, Indian single malts have been gaining strong market share. The category grew at a rate of 14,200% between 2022 and 2021, to 2.81 lakh cases (of 9 litres each) being consumed in the year. And that is because, there are about a dozen Indian and foreign distilleries that have launched their own single-malt brands, such as Paul John, Amrut, Rampur, Indri Godawan and GianChand, among others.

William Grant has also moved to a self-owned distribution network—which is controlled by its UK parent company—in India, over the past decade. The company officially set up its India operations in 2014. 

“The number of cities and towns accepting this kind of (high end and luxury) product and price point has changed in the last decade. The last six years for the premium spirits category have been very healthy for the industry. From a consumption point of view, the pandemic changed the trends entirely," Mehta said.

“We've heard this many times, but Indians are consuming better. We are now even bringing many rare liquids or whiskies into the country. For example, earlier the company would only bring in a maximum of 21-year-old aged whiskies, but today, that number goes to 23, 29 year and 30-year-old spirits in Glenfiddich," he noted. 

Similarly, The Balvenie range of whiskies, which used to earlier run out of stock pretty regularly, has also seen a spurt in consumption recently. William Grant's sells a variety of beverages in India, ranging from premium and luxury scotch whiskies to high-end gin and single malts. 

These segments make up a majority of the company's portfolio here. In addition to single malts, blended malt whiskey Monkey Shoulder and Hendrick's gin have also been fast-growing contributors to its portfolio here. 

"Aged whisky or aged stocks have been difficult to project around the world because it's a prediction game and the demand has been huge around the world and so it's not new that companies have stopped numbering their aged whiskies in the number of years they have been aged to. But this is also a testament to the growing demand for single malt whiskies around the world," Mehta explained.

A new drink

William Grants tied up with Delhi-based Modi Distillery in 2018 to set up its first facility in the country in Uttar Pradesh and launched its first-ever made in India product from there. The company launched a variant of its Grant's range, called Grant’s Distinction. 

Despite the country's dramatically different climate compared to Scotland’s, William Grants created a new variant here, which it then ran trials for in the country to ensure that the whisky's flavours wouldn’t be impacted by changing ambient temperatures.

“There has been consistent growth in demand for our brands across the country. Metro cities contribute the largest segment to our business, both in value and volume," Mehta said. 

“The main business is coming from the north of the country (Delhi-NCR and Punjab). In the west, it is Mumbai and Goa, and other locations like Hyderabad and Kolkata are also catching up quickly. Demand and consumption in tier II cities is also growing rapidly," he added.

This growth accelerated post-Covid-19, particularly in 2021 and 2022, as remote working continued. Consumption of international spirits in tier II and III cities, was relatively strong starting between 2012-13, but the purchases were only happening in the bigger metros when travellers would move about. 

The trend has changed a lot since then. The retail and shopping experience in tier II cities has improved dramatically. "Shoppers are consuming 250 million cases of whisky in India and they are looking to upgrade. I don't think it was about the ability or the exposure ever for smaller cities, but the access, and now that's changing," Mehta noted.

Globally, William Grant & Sons reported revenue growth of 21.7% for the year ending December 2022, at £1.72 billion ($2.1 billion). Its profit after tax for the year stood at £331.3 million, while it's expected to declare its 2023 results soon. 

The company bounced back from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022, with its profit levels back in line with those of 2019, when the pandemic and the consequent disruption in global supply chains had impacted the alcoholic beverages business.