Astral Spirits aims to launch new brands in India

The company, which began with an investment of ₹6 crore in FY23, will now launch a domestic made vodka this month and a whisky in the coming months. The whisky is being blended by Surrinder Kumar, the master blender behind popular Indian whisky brands like Kamat and Amrut Indian Single Malt.

At present, the company imports products from different parts of Europe where it is bottled and has sold about 6,000 cases of imported vodka and about 8,000 cases of its prosecco since company’s inception in September 2022.

“We aim to capture a 10% market share of ultra-premium vodka & 15% market share of prosecco industries in India in the coming years with our imported variants. Our made-in-India whisky will be in three categories and we expect it to contribute about ₹25 crore to the turnover in the future," Roshini Nath, the chairperson of the company, told Mint.

The company at present retails in the markets of Delhi, UP, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab at around ₹4,500 for its vodka and around ₹3,000-3,300 for its proseccos. In next phase, the company will focus on markets like Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in the near future.

The business was founded by British entrepreneur Aman Chopra, under the company ‘House of Skull X’, in 2014 and is a family run business out of Europe. The India business, Astral is headed by Nath and chief operating officer and director, Jessica Bedi.

The new India-made vodka for the domestic market is being produced in Punjab, through a spirits plant it has leased. After the launch of its vodka and whisky, it intends to delve into tequila, wine and gin business following which it will expand in 0% alcohol range beverages as well. Some of these spirits could be imported.

In recent months, India has announced a lot of new spirits and the volume consumption has surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022. The Indian alcoholic beverage market is experiencing intensifying rivalry spurred by the launch of several new spirits.

Since April this year, companies such as Radico Khaitan, and Khemani Distilleries Pvt. Ltd and Allied Blenders & Distillers Ltd, NeuWorld Spirits Pvt. Ltd owned by Raj Niwas pan-masala owning company TRDP Group, have all laun-ched a number of made-in-India spirits across categories such as whisky, gin, and rum.

Industry executives say that the main impetus behind this surge of innovation is a mix of stiff competition and growing consumer acceptance of Indian brands.

According to the Confederation of the Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies, a body that represent major alcoholic spirits players in India, the total sales of IMFL products in the year 2022-23 was 385 million cases (of 9 litres each). This is nearly 14% above the previous year and also almost 12% over the pre-covid levels (2019-20) indicating the impact of Covid has fully worn off.