Bangalore-based Amrut Distilleries plans to increase the share of luxury single malt whiskey in its total business, in tune with the premiumisation drive among liquor makers in the country.

“Overall our company does a turnover of Rs 500 crore. The luxury division, which also includes single malt, is about Rs 130 crore (around 25-26 per cent). Our vision in the next 5 years is that this should increase to at least 35-40 per cent of the turnover,” said Rakshit N. Jagdale, managing director, Amrut Distillers.

Around 60 per cent of the company’s business comes from India, while the remaining 40 per cent is from exports.

The single malt market size in India is about 5 lakh cases per annum (each case is 9 litres) and it is growing at an estimated rate of 12-15 per cent every year. Within this around 2 lakh cases are of Indian single malt whiskey makers, including the likes of Amrut, Rampur, Solan, Paul John, Indri among others.

To support the rising demand, the company is undertaking an expansion of its distillery capacity at a capex of around Rs 10 crore. “There is a plan to increase the volume of distillation. We do close to 1 million litres per annum and we are going to increase it to 1.3 million litres by August this year,” Jagdale said.

Homegrown Indian single malt whiskey makers also remain cautiously optimistic about the UK-India FTA which could potentially lower tariff barriers for Scotch whiskey into India.

“With the FTA coming in, prices of BIO (bottled in origin) products will drop. The Indian single malt category is ready for it. Obviously, our volume could drop. But our quality today is not inferior to Scotch,” Jagdale said.

He added that with current Indian consumers knowledgeable of their choice of drink, the homegrown brands would be able to hold their market and continue to grow.