High Spirits

Asia Pacific Breweries brings Tiger beer to India

Sayoni Bhaduri - Mumbai

L-R : Chetan Gupta with Johan De Deyn, technical manager for India, Asia Pacific Breweries (Aurangabad), Edmond Neo, GM (Group Commercial) and Vivek Chhabra, its regional director (South Asia) and director (Group Business Development) at the launch of Tiger beer in Mumbai

Asia Pacific Breweries has launched its flagship beer brand Tiger in Mumbai. Speaking about future plans Chetan Gupta, marketing manager (India), Asia Pacific Breweries (Aurangabad), said, "After Mumbai and Delhi, we will look at other markets in north India like Delhi and others." Within Maharashtra it will focus on Pune and in the north it is looking at Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The brewery will also launch in the eastern region where Heineken is presently imported. He refused to reveal investment details.

The focus market for Tiger beer will be the youth in the premium segment. To develop its product in the Indian market, APB has acquired breweries in Aurangabad, Ulhasnagar, Pune and Goa. The Goa brewery is yet to undergo up-gradation. It also has a greenfield brewery set up in Hyderabad where trials for production will soon begin. The breweries are equipped with state-of-the-art bottle inspection system which will discard unfit bottles.

This brand's entry comes after the launch of its other strong brews like Barons Strong Brew and Cannon that have shown potential in the market. While the former focuses on Mumbai, Delhi and other north Indian markets, Cannon is available in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.