Alcoholic Beverages Industry in India: an Exploratory Study

India is the 3rd largest liquor market in the world and one of the fastest growing markets in the world, on the back of demographics & economy. The Indian liquor market, which is divided into various categories like IMFL (Indianmade foreign liquor), imported liquor, beer and country-made liquor, is brimming with growth. Challenges like the restrictive policies of states with regard to movement, production, pricing, etc, increase in raw material prices (like ENA, glass, molasses etc) and impositions applied on advertising pose huge challenges for the industry. But with favorable demographics, rising disposable income levels and greater acceptance of alcoholic beverages in social circles, the outlook for the Indian alcoholic beverages continues to remain positive. In addition, changing consumer preference towards premium varieties of IMFL is likely to result in sales-mix gradually improve in favor of premium brands. Indian Alcoholic Industry currently pegged at INR 507bn is stated to grow at a CAGR of ~29% to reach INR 1400bn by 2015. The alcoholic beverages industry, as they say is recession-proof. With a rising and promising GDP, the economic status of India is robust. Rising social acceptability, conspicuous consumption and high disposable income of the globalized consumer is pushing the industry to newer heights. Also, rapid urbanization in metros and tier-2 cities, is contributing further to the growth. The present study is an attempt to analyze exploratory and to understand the various factors which are fuelling the growth of Indian alcoholic beverages industry.