Prohibition forces United Breweries out of Bihar

New Delhi: Vijay Mallya-promoted United Breweries Ltd (UBL) on Thursday said it has discontinued brewing operations at its manufacturing unit in Bihar due to prohibition of alcohol in the state.

“Consequent to imposition of total prohibition effective April, 2017, commercial production at the company’s brewery located at Naubatpur, District Patna has been discontinued,” United Breweries said in a regulatory filing.

The Nitish Kumar-led Grand Secular Alliance government had first banned the manufacture, trade, sale, consumption of country-made liquor from 1 April, but later imposed a blanket ban on all types of liquor including foreign liquor in the state. In September last year, the Patna high court quashed the government notification completing banning liquor in the state.

UBL said the Bihar government has challenged Patna high court’s decision and the matter is pending in Supreme Court. UBL has 21 company-owned manufacturing units across the country. It operated only one unit in Bihar.

In a separate filing, the company said it has launched a new product ‘Kingfisher-Storm’ in the strong beer category. The UBL stock was trading 3.94% higher at Rs834.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.