Heineken enters the battle of Indian beers

Is yours a Cobra or a Kingfisher? Indian beers have been round the UK’s 9,000 or so curry houses for years without making any real inroads into the more traditional beer market. This is not for lack of trying. Ever since brewer Molson Coors took a majority stake (50.1 percent) in Cobra Beer Partnership Ltd, a joint venture set up in 2009 with Cobra’s founder Lord Karan Bilimoria, volume sales have grown and in 2010 Cobra made its first ever profit in over a decade – it was founded in 1989. It is estimated to sell about 270,000 hl in the UK.

However, in 2011 it still trailed the list of top 20 beer brands in UK supermarkets according to Nielsen data.

Kingfisher has fared even worse. According to Indian media, Kingfisher’s total sales in Europe were 1 million cases (90,000 hl), the majority of which were sold in Britain.

Small wonder that Kingfisher’s parent, United Breweries in India, must have been keen to find a new partner to brew and distribute the brand. At the end of April 2013, it was announced that Heineken will start brewing Kingfisher beer in the UK from October this year, when Kingfisher’s current agreement with UK brewer Shepherd Neame expires. The contract with Heineken is to run for five years, or less should Heineken fail to meet certain quotas, according to a regulatory filing.

Heineken’s pub business in the UK, named Star Pubs & Bars, is made up of an estate of 1,350 pubs. That should help boost Kingfisher’s sales.