PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2016

TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 42 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 11/16 www.petpla.net Country Liquor: the PET Pioneer from West Bengal By Kay Barton March 10, 2016, Alpha Malts Pvt. Ltd. We met: Mr Nishu Nigam, Director When Indian spirits bottling company Alpha Malts opened its plant in Kolkata in September 2012, it became the first bottler to PET as well as glass packaging in its field: the “country liquors” market. The packaging concept has proven to be popular with consumers and the bot- tling firm says that the use of PET enables it to provide a customer-friendly service in the low price segment. The pioneer of the entire project is Director Nishu Nigam. Country Liquors offers six dif- ferent brands in volumes of 180ml, 300ml and 600ml, and fills around 80,000 PET bottles per day. It cer- tainly seems to have struck the right note in its market. In 2013, its glass to PET ratio was 50/50; by 2015 the PET share had increased to 80%. The PET bottles have, to date, been blow-moulded and supplied exter- nally but Mr Nigam tells us that the company now intends to collaborate with a local preform supplier and to undertake blowmoulding itself. “Currently, we have two PET lines and one glass line for our products,” Mr Nigam says. “PET has accounted for 80% of our production. A third PET line is already on site and is going to be set up soon. In order to maintain our higher output, we are also con- sidering investing in our own blow- moulding machine in the future.” The base alcohol, which is 96% proof, is purchased in the West Bengal region and from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. It is mixed with different natural flavours and blended with oils and water, on-site. The finished products, which come in flavours such as mango and orange, contain 22% alcohol and are all col- ourless, in accordance with official regulations. Aluminium caps and glue-paper labels are used, exclu- sively, and all of the products from the Kolkata plant are solely for the local market in West Bengal; tax consid- erations mean that there is no point in selling to any other Indian states. The key sales periods, which align with state-wide festivities and/or stock- building by retailers, are October, December and March. “Our direct competitor is IFB Agro, the spirits bottling firm, which is also from Kolkata. Funnily enough, we actually buy products from them for processing!” Nigam explains. Alpha Malts estimates the total volume cur- rently in the local market to be around 46 million bottles per month - 60% PET and rest in glass; most sales are in 600ml sized bottles. Across the whole of India, Alpha Malts estimates that the consumption of country liquors totals around 600-700 million litres per month. TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 42 PET bottle filling in action with (f.l.t.r.) Rajesh Nath, VDMA India, Nishu Nigam. Alpha Malts, and Kay Barton .com 100815dmyL