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Disowned Success

The quaint tale of Gilbey's, an MNC play in the mass-market whisky market.

By Moinak Mitra

Gilbey's: Ups and downs

Want to buy United Distillers & Vintners' (UDV) mass-market whisky play, Gilbey's?

It's an interesting question to ponder, if only because brand successes don't find their way to the auction block all that often. If this rare circumstance has come to be, it's because International Distillers & Vintners (IDV), the parent company, has decided to discontinue marketing low-end local products, and put all its effort behind such global brands as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Black & White and Vat 69. This is a reversal of its earlier decision to gain large volumes in the regular whisky segment that accounts for a huge chunk of India's liquor consumption.

Anyhow, up for sale are the three variants of whisky that sell under Gilbey's in India: Green Label, Old Gold and Gold Club. These three are being sold jointly, though reports indicate that the use of the mother-brand Gilbey's (which unifies the three) will be available to the buyer only for a period of a few years.

That wouldn't make sense to any buyer if Gilbey's was the chief attraction. But, as it turns out, the attraction is Gilbey's Green Label - the largest-selling of the three variants. The next question, of course, is how the brand equity is shared. Is it Gilbey's that attracts the consumer, or is it Green Label?

That's a tough one. What we do know is that Gilbey's Green Label alone sells some 2 million cases, of a dozen 750-ml bottles each, making it the fourth largest selling whisky in India. But would it sell without Gilbey's backing?

Some would argue that just as Black Label and Johnnie Walker (another IDV brand) are inseparable, so are these two. But that would ignore the way the brand has been built. Gilbey's Green label was launched in 1994, with a special blend created by a team of UK blenders, in a distinctive diamond-shaped bottle with a green diamond motif design. Apart from good distribution and retail signage, the brand's magnet has been its advertising campaign, with its gritty images of youthful exuberance and destiny-defining ambition, brought alive by the popular jingle 'Kuch Paana Hai, kuch kar dikhana hai' ('something to achieve, something to do and show'). While Gilbey's has always been the closing signature, it's fair to assume that it's the Green Label aspect of the theme that plays more effectively to the target consumer's sensibilities. In other words, even as a standalone, the sub-brand probably has reasonable 'brand pull' - given that the visual elements of the packaging remain constant.

So, does that clinch it? No, there's the minor matter of the bidding process, which is still to take place. DSP Merrill Lynch is working out the details of the auction. In the fray are McDowell & Co, Shaw Wallace & Co Ltd, Whytehall India Ltd, a joint venture between Bacardi and Radico Khaitan, and even a company floated by ex-UDV chief Deepak Roy, who's seen as the prime mover of the attempt to gain mass-market volumes.

How much each of the players is willing to pay for the brand is unknown, though Rs 100 crore is the figure floating around as the minimum that UDV might accept as a bid. As for IDV's global brand focus, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky have already done marvellous jobs of entering the sophisticated drinker's consciousness with their brand messages. But what about Vat 69... is this a self-evidently positioned brand?

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