[BITList] Johnnie can take a walk, Bagpiper to be No.1

[John Feltham]

Johnnie can take a walk, Bagpiper to be No.1



Party’s Over For Diageo Brand As Mallya Whisky To Top Global Sales By  
Year-End

Sarah Jacob BANGALORE

AS LAID-OFF workers at the Scottish home of Johnnie Walker drain the  
bitter cup, India’s United Spirits is preparing to raise a toast to a  
whisky named in honour of a Scottish highland tradition — the Bagpiper.

It is widely expected that at the end of this year, when the numbers  
are totalled, Johnnie Walker’s iconic Striding Man will not be  
striding at the head of the band of the world’s top-selling whiskies.  
The Bagpiper, walking with a little extra swagger in a ceremonial  
Indian dress complete with a turban, will be leading the party.

In Kilmarnock, which will be losing its nearly two-century-old link  
with the brand because of Diageo’s decision to shut the plant in the  
western coastal town, the workers are almost gleeful that Johnnie  
Walker will be overtaken by a Johnnie-come-lately.

“We wish Bagpiper every success for the future and hope their sales  
continue to rise and rise. And we want to know if Bagpiper can give  
700 desperate folk a job,” Scottish tabloid Daily Recordquoted shop  
steward Georgina Cunningham as saying earlier this month. United  
Spirits, part of the Vijay Mallyaowned UB Group, says it expects to  
sell 17 million cases of Bagpiper whisky in the fiscal to March.  
Johnnie Walker sales during the same period are projected at 16.8  
million cases.

In 2008, Johnnie Walker sold 16.3 million cases to 15.4 million by  
Bagpiper. Sales of the Indian whisky have been growing at 10-11%,  
United Spirits said, while the scotch brand’s volumes grew by 4% in  
the fiscal to June 2009, according to Diageo.

“Bagpiper’s strong growth has been achieved on the back of the  
investment in the brand, the consistent quality it has delivered to  
consumers and the imagery which has been spruced up by an English  
design house,” United Spirits president and MD Vijay Rekhi observed.

A Diageo representative said Bagpiper is an important brand in India  
but there is no direct comparison between it and the “world’s best- 
selling Scotch whisky brand.” Bagpiper sales stood at £450m globally  
in 2008

“AT the same time, we think that the increased interest in the Indian  
whisky category provides exciting prospects for Johnnie Walker.  
Experience tells us that a healthy local spirit category feeds into  
the growth of the international spirit category, and Johnnie Walker  
would be well positioned to benefit from that growth.”

Although both Johnnie Walker and Bagpiper are whiskies they are as  
different as chalk and cheese. The Indian brand sells for about Rs 200  
per 750 ml quart while the cheapest variant of the scotch whisky —  
Johnnie Walker Red Label — costs Rs 1,200. Globally, Johnnie Walker  
sales totalled over £2.8 billion (Rs 21,000 crore) compared to £450  
million (Rs 3,500 crore) for Bagpiper. Mr Mallya, who launched  
Bagpiper as a trainee some three decades ago, has said he will add  
insult to Diageo’s injury in the coming months: the beer-to-airlines  
tycoon sees United Spirits displacing Diageo as the world’s top  
spirits company by March 2011.




ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.




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