Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt Ltd, maker of Officer’s Choice whisky, is in talks with private equity players – Carlyle and TPG – to raise between $100 million and $200 million (Rs 620 crore – Rs 1,240 crore).
The Maharashtra-based company might offload around 15 per cent stake through a mixture of debt and equity, Deepak Roy, Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of Allied Blenders, said.
The funds will be utilised for acquisitions as well as capacity expansion.
“We are in advanced talks with Carlyle and TPG for funds. The fund-raising depends on whether we opt for an acquisition or not,” he said on the sidelines of the launch of Officer’s Choice Black whisky.
The whisky will compete with the likes of Royal Stag in the semi-premium plus segment.
According to Roy, Allied Blenders is in talks with three domestic liquor companies for a probable acquisition.
The companies has a strong presence in the premium whisky market.
The final decision is expected by the end of this fiscal, he said.
Capacity Expansion The company will also look to shore up its bottling capacity to around 33 million cases by the end of next fiscal.
Its current bottling capacity stands at around 28 million cases.
Allied Blenders is looking to set up bottling plants in Punjab, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
It also plans to set up its own spirit manufacturing units.
Currently, only 15 per cent of the company’s bottling requirement is met indigenously, with the rest being outsourced. Even the entire spirit requirement of Allied Blenders is outsourced.
“We plan to meet 30 per cent of our total spirit requirements from in-house facilities. For this, we need to produce 300 kilolitres of spirit per day,” Roy said. According to him, Allied Blenders was also eyeing the launch of a premium whisky variant to compete with the likes of Blenders Pride.
It will be a standalone one without the ‘Officers Choice’ brand name.
“With the launch of a premium brand, we would be present in all whisky categories. Having premium brands would help us increase margins,” Roy said.
Currently, its whisky brands include the Officer’s Choice Prestige in the regular category, Officer’s Choice Blue in the semi-premium range and Officer’s Choice Black in the semi-premium plus categories.
It has no offerings in the premium and Scotch categories.
Apart from whisky, other brands include Jolly Roger rum; Wodka Gorbatschow and Class 21 vodkas; and, Lord&Master and Kyron brandies.
abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in