Cobra Beer to flow in North East, Andhra

Bangalore, Jan 17 (UNI) After its successful launch in India, Cobra Beer would spread its network in the country by entering into contract with three breweries in the North East and setting up its own brewery in Hyderabad, its CEO Karan Billimoria said today.

Speaking to mediapersons at the venue of the CII Partnership Summit here, he said the company would invest ten million Dollars to set up its manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of five million cases per annum.

''India offer huge potential for Cobra beer. The per capita beer consumption has touched one litre. This will go up to 20 litres during the next ten years. Depending on the demand, we will go in for capacity expansion in the coming years,'' he said.

Mr Billimoria said Cobra Beer's Indian subsidiary, which currently had tie ups with local breweries in Rajasthan and Goa, would enter into contract manufacturing with three other brewers in a bid to strengthen its presence.

The company, whose beer sales recorded a 65 per cent growth last year, also planned to invest another five to ten million Dollars in the next three years, taking its total investments to 20 million Dollars. It had recently raised 27.5 million Pounds to fund its expansion plans in the UK and India, he said.

The company, with subsidiaries in South Africa and the US apart from India, currently exported beer to more than 45 countries.

UNI