Lord Bilimoria's Cobra looks at buying Indian brewery

Jan 7, 2007, 13:00 GMT

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) Lord Karan Bilimoria's Cobra Beer has chalked out plans to enter into licensing pacts to brew beer at two more Indian locations besides looking at an outright acquisition of a brewery and a greenfield project.

'We are already scouting for licensing agreements with two breweries in India - one in the north and the other in the south. With that, we will have brewing capacities in four Indian locations,' Bilimoria said.

'We are also on the lookout for an outright purchase of a brewery here and money won't be a problem since we have raised $50 million last year for such expansion plans,' Billimoria, a Cambridge law graduate, told IANS in an interview.

Cobra Beer, which started operations in 1989 by exporting beer to Britain out of Bangalore, currently has brewing capacities in two states - Goa and Rajasthan.

'Cobra also has plans for a new plant in India once its sales reach a million cases per annum,' said Bilimoria, who in July became one of the youngest peers in Britain and the first Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords.

'I can say we are right on target and hope to achieve that figure in two years from now.'

According to the Cobra chief executive, the money raised in July will largely go towards expansion plans in India and Britain. 'Our mission since day one has been to brew the finest ever Indian beer and make it a global beer brand.'

He said Cobra beer was currently stocked by 90 percent of the 6,000-odd Indian restaurants in Britain licensed to sell alcohol and that plans were afoot to up its market share by expanding sales of draught beer.

'We also have plans to launch drought beer in India soon. We will also export to Nepal, Bangladesh and, maybe, Sri Lanka from here,' said Bilimoria, a chartered accountant by profession and co-chair of the Indo-British Partnership.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service