July 12: After expanding his footprints in the retail sales through La Cave run by his wife Madhulika Bhattacharya, Aman Dhall of Brindco is back in the news as a distributor for Sula Indian wines for Haryana, with the first shipment nearing his warehouse should be available to the 5-6 wholesalers for further despatch to the hotels and retailers y or tomorrow, writes Subhash Arora
At a wine dinner on 12 March, 2018 with the Culinary Director Brian Streeter from Cakebread Cellars at the Lodhi Hotel at the then unnamed Italian Restaurant PerBacco, hosted by La Cave, the retail arm of Brindco, I was pleasantly surprised to see team Sula- Nick Pringle (COO), Ken Pritchard (V. P.Marketing ), Deepak Bhatnagar (Director, Sales) and Arvind Vaid (Zonal Sales Manager- North)-it could not be a top heavier team involving marketing. Obviously something was cooking-what with Aman Dhall, Director of Brindco, who is not always present at such dinners, even spending quite a bit of time with the guests sitting at what I called the Sula Table; more than a courteous gesture.
I sniffed something was cooking-was it a Grover type of deal-in which Brindco had been earlier involved as a partner with national rights to exclusively sell Grover wines, that resulted in a bitter ending? Was there some other marketing connection or investment in the company planned? With Brindco already actively pursuing buying some viable Indian winery, there were interesting possibilities.
The cat is finally out of the bag now. Sula has appointed Brindco distributors for Indian wines for Haryana, an important market for Indian wines, especially with the monopoly in the sale of imported wines. Every importer including Brindco has to sell wines through the sole distributor, Lake Forest wines. Indian wines can be sold through any distributor paying a license fee of Rs. 30 lakhs (Rs. 3 million), who further can sell to the wholesalers with L-1 licenses. Till last year, Sula was distributing directly with its own warehouse. But with its ambitious plans to grow being compatible with the ambitions of Brindco to have a hand in the Indian wines pie, it seems to be a natural fit for both. The wholesalers (around 6 in 2 zones) in Gurgaon sell them further to licensed retailers of restaurants falling within the respective territories.
Interestingly, Lake Forest wines will now have to buy Sula Indian wines for their customers who also buy Indian wines, from Brindco, thus establishing a give-and-take situation that would turn out to be slightly more beneficial to Brindco which can sell to all the wholesalers in Gurgaon for their further sales to retail or the hotels in their territory, defined by the excise rules. To make things more interesting, Lakeforest is also in negotiations with Fratelli as a distributor and is likely to close the deal soon.
Meanwhile, Sula is on a roll. According to unconfirmed reports, it touched a sale of Rs. 455 Crores (4.55 million) in 2017-18 indicating a jump of over 20% from previous year’s sales. It also broke the jinx and crossed the sale of 1 million cases. The growth in value was achieved primarily by increasing the sale of premium wines and reducing the sale of cheaper brands. The current year is also seeing a growth upward of 20% during the first quarter (April-June 2018.
Interesting times for the Indian wines till the next yet-unknown roadblock hits the industry-again!
Subhash Arora
If you Like this article please click on the Like button