Radico Khaitan adds premium vodka and whisky to portfolio

Liquor company, Radico Khaitan Ltd, has lined up more premium spirts in both brown and white spirit categories including additions to its vodka as well as whisky portfolio, the company said.

It has added premium variants to its Magic Moments Vodka brand apart from the Royal Ranthambore Heritage Collection-Royal Crafted Whisky.

Magic Moments Dazzle and Royal Ranthambore will be available in Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana in select stores in the first phase of launch.

Vodka currently accounts for less than 5% of the domestic Indian-made foreign liquor or IMFL volumes compared to around 25- 30% globally. With the favourable demographic profile and changing consumer preferences, the category of vodka is bound to expand, the company said.

Premium spirits have seen rapid growth in the market, Amar Sinha, COO, Radico Khaitan Limited said.

“Over the last five years, premium vodka space has grown at a faster pace than the overall vodka industry which is a positive sign. Within vodka, flavours are gaining momentum. More than 50% of our vodka volumes are flavours,”Sinha said.

“To expand the vodka category, we are doing a number of things including new flavours, new expressions and now an ultra-premium offering by the name of Magic Moments Dazzle Vodka,” he added.

For its whisky launch, the company will roll out the marketing campaign to reinforce the brand position of being “India’s Finest Yet”. A host of purpose-driven initiatives will be activated in the coming weeks, the company said.

Sinha said the company has been working on what he termed as the two "most ambitious brands" for the last three years.

The premium spirits category is drawing interest as younger consumers move up the value chain and seek variety and better alcoholic beverages. Recently, India's largest spirits company United Spirits Limited said it will sell its mass-prices brands as it focusses on building its core brands and building a stronger portfolio of premium spirits.