Marilyn Monroe was reportedly fond of Dom Perignon champagne. And the Windsors' preference is said to be Moet & Chandon champagne. In India to launch a market offensive Jean-Marie Laborde, Chairman, Moet & Chandon, the French company that owns both brands, spoke to BT's Jaya Basu about M&C's India plans.

Q. First things first, why this sudden interest in India?

A. It has been three years since we have taken an interest in India-we believe there are great prospects for our business here. The implementation of the WTO agreement from April 1, 2001, will help open up the Indian market; right now it is difficult to import our products openly into India. That is why we decided to set up our own organisation in this country, so that we could understand the nature of the business and the market. We are doing well in other Asian countries. We believe that this trend will be repeated in India.

How different is the Indian market from other Asian and South Asian markets?

India is probably more westernised. Here, more people speak English than in any other Asian country. There is a lot of knowledge about the occidental way of life in India. But having said that, the country is still not very open in terms of the economy. With WTO, the signs of opening up are strong and this is perhaps the right time for us to come and make our presence felt here.

You must have studied the Indian market before making this foray. Is there a significant market at all for things like champagne and cognac in India?

After talking to our key clients in hotels we have realised that there is. Talking with them has given us a lot of confidence that there is a considerable amount of interest in wine, champagne, and good food. Secondly, we have observed that a lot of Indians travel abroad. So, there must be a lot of people with knowledge. We conducted some wine-tasting exercises in India to gauge this, and the results were extremely good. Fundamental knowledge about wines is quite high in India. We have also noticed that while India was predominantly a whisky market five years back, the preference for other liquor including wine has gone up.

But India is certainly a nascent market for wines. How do you plan to approach your potential customers?

Our first objective is to learn about the market. We know that there is a potential but we don't know how big it is, and we don't know the pace at which we should develop our business in India. That is why we are very prudent. We don't want to invest huge sums and regret (that decision) later. We are not in the consumer electronics business, and we don't want to flood the country with our products.

Our company was officially established in 1743. The company is still there with the same brands. We are in a long-term business. Whenever we enter a country, we stay there forever. We believe India could be one of the top 10 markets in the world for Dom Perignon in the next five years. This is an image brand which is not that big in terms of volumes. If we achieve this target, we will be very pleased. And we propose to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary staffed only by Indians because nobody else knows the market better than them.

How do you define your potential customers and how will you target them?

Today, there are large number of people who travel extensively and entertain significantly. But the choice of their drinks is limited. We think we can add Dom Perignon to that (limited portfolio).

We believe that there is a very interesting opportunity to target women. Men, typically, have a wide range of liquor to choose from, whether its whisky or beer or whatever, but we feel that in most cases women are not comfortable with these. For them it could be champagne.

How do you plan to crack the champagne market?

There are two, three ways of doing that. We plan to have champagne served by the glass. We are talking to fashion designers. Moet & Chandon has a worldwide association with fashion-in France, US, Italy (Milan), and UK. And, hopefully, with the liberalisation of the market we can make the product easily available.

How many of your brands do you plan to launch initially in India?

Only two. That includes Dom Perignon, the most exclusive champagne in the world. The second product would be Moet & Chandon-the main brand of the company. In time it may change but to begin with, we feel these two are enough.

How do you plan to market and distribute your products?

The storage of wine is different from the storage of other alcoholic products...

We are setting up our own distribution company for this purpose. With this, we will be able to control conditions under which the wines and champagnes are stored. So, that is something we will expect to put in place within the next few months.

Essentially, our organisation will promote and market the brands to wholesalers and retailers. However, we will pick up retailers very selectively. We will initially concentrate on metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai because they account for 70 per cent of our business. After that, we may look at Bangalore.

How do you see the Indian market growing?

Right now, we sell around $3 million worth of products in India. Champagne contributes $2 million to this; the rest comes from cognac.

In 1999, 3,000 cases of champagne and 2,000 cases of cognac were sold. This year so far, 8,000 cases of champagne and 4,500 cases of cognac have been sold in India. May be in the next two years, the size of the market will double. In the next five years, we expect to touch sales of $15-20 million.

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