Snippets

Shaw Wallace To Set Up Rs 100 Crore Breweries
Shaw Wallace plans to set up four greenfield beer breweries with over Rs 100 crore investment, besides expanding capacity of four of its existing breweries to meet growing beer demand in the country. The first greenfield brewery will be set up at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. This beer capacity expansion comprises ongoing restructuring in the company, as per recommendations by management consultants McKinsey at Company. Besides, Shaw Wallace is setting up three more greenfield breweries in Kerala, West Bengal and Goa. The company is expanding capacity at four other breweries to meet the growing demand for Haywards and Royal Challenge beer brands. These breweries include those in Maharashtra, Pondicherry, Hyderabad and Haryana. As per the ongoing restructuring exercise of Shaw Wallace, the liquor and beer businesses are being consolidated as two separate businesses for sharper focus. The two will be called Shaw Wallace Distilleries Limited and Shaw Wallace Breweries Limited, respectively.

Back In Delhi
Smirnoff had gone off the shelves in liquor shops in Delhi in July 2001, to protest the ‘un-fair price’ fixed by the Excise Commissioner. As part of an attempt at rationalisation of liquor prices in the Capital in July last year, Smirnoff had to be sold at Rs 917 per case. The company felt that the price quoted was “unreasonably low” and wanted to sell at Rs 1,326 per case, the price at which Smirnoff was sold in Karnataka, last year. However, a recent judgement in the Court of the Financial Commissioner allowed the company to bring back its Smirnoff Vodka at a minimum EDP (ex distillery price) of Rs 1,326. Subsequently, Smirnoff was back on the racks on the New year’s eve at a price of Rs 360 for a 750 ml bottle.

Barista Coffee Sets Up SPV For Overseas Spread
The Barista Coffee Company (BCC) had drawn up plans to expand its retailing business globally. It has floated a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the purpose, which will be the holding company for its overseas expansion. BCC has set up a wholly owned subsidiary, Barista Coffee International (BCI), in Mauritius which will be he holding company for the group’s other expansion.

The idea is to have different companies for different geographical regions. As part of the first phase, Barista will be entering Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. And in the second phase, it will set sites on the European region. Funding for the international operations will be through internal accruals. Barista has projected a turnover of Rs 30 crore for 2001 and expects to clock a turnover of Rs 85 crore in 2002.