How Will Chandon Delice Transform Wine Market Of India

Today Moet Hennessy’s entire wine industry sums up to 3.2 Million cases and that’s just 1 per cent of the entire industry of the world. What Delice aims to do is create the taste for consumers who don’t have the pallet to have a champagne or a sparkling wine. A lot of Indians don’t really enjoy the acidic taste that’s present in most of the wines but Chandon is transforming that taste and is more of a culture than a sparkling wine company. Hence a culture’s main characteristic is that it brings people together and all those people who are not part of the Chandon culture will soon be brought in by shifting from just representing a sparkling wine company.

The packaging of the bottles as well is quite unique and vibrant, we have done this with Brute and Rose as well our other variants with limited edition bottles for different campaigns. But with Delice, it is permanent and breaking the sparkling wine code. The colour of the bottle is blue and florescent orange packaging. We are telling everyone to have the Delice in tumblers and with a fruit and the wine also absorbs the taste of the fruit making it almost like a cocktail and the cocktail culture too is picking up in the country. Hence bringing in a new culture altogether in the presence of a new variant in the industry, Chandon Delice can transform the wine market of India.

How much did it cost the company in building their distillery in the Dhindori area of Nashik?
We have invested 8 Million Euros in putting the distillery together. It was a challenging task in first find the right landscape and analysing the right infrastructure and we decided that by the year 2011 we would open a distillery in Dhindori, Nashik. The land fits perfectly with our understanding and it also provided the best of chain and the right kind of grapes. Hence bringing in all the equipment and putting together the infrastructure costs 8 Million Euros and hence we did not spend any money over here but in fact invested it.

How did Moet Hennessy workaround opening a wine distillery in India?
Moet Hennessy is convinced that India has fantastic lands to grow the wines. To take this decision we had to research o two important factors: the right landscape for the wines to produce the right grapes and the potential of the Indian wine market. After studying these factors closely it was quite clear that India is the right place. In addition to that the import costs are very high hence we decided to come up with our own distillery where we design and offer Moet Hennessy products and offer it at a more affordable price to the consumer. The reason we wanted to explore the wine domain in India was that when we came with our other brands to the country we saw that the consumers had quite an interest in wine and sparkling wine. After finding the right land, right grapes and right growers we decided to enter the growing market which eventually concluded for Moet Hennessy to open a distillery of their own in India.

What is your take on the wine market in India? Do you see a large segment of consumers for wine?
If we look at the IWSR (International Wines and Spirits Record) report of last year for India is 3.2 Million cases but a lot of this is also the cheap wine. If you look at the price of wine above Rs. 1000 the numbers change and if we look at sparkling wine the last numbers including Chandon contributed to around 40,000 cases of above Rs. 1000 Indian sparkling wine. The market is growing really rapidly because last year the market grew by 23% and the entire wine industry is growing at a healthy pace when compared to other segments. The market has a lot of potential because it grew by 100% in 2 years from 20,000 cases to 40,000 cases.

How do you plan to strengthen the Moet Hennessy brands in India?
To start with Chandon the Delice is a really good start for us and then we are reinforcing our investments behind the brand. Later when we move to other important brands we would be investing behind 3 brands which are: Moet Hennessy, Cognac and Glen Morange. Mumbai and the southern regions of India have been quite perceptive about the cognac and the malt and with what we are doing with the brand. The Belvedere remains one of our key focus at the moment for Vodka and this category as well is still growing even though it has been slowing down a little. Even though many of our brands have entered the market, all of them have been very important and their existence in the market motivates us as well to invest in new ideologies to penetrate through the consumer but the main focus also is on the champagne and sparkling wine category as well because these segments cover 75-80% of the entire Moet Hennessy company. To sum it up we are bringing people into this new culture which may seem less in quantity but is always high with respect to quality.

How do you see your brands in India after 5 years?
We would be two things in the next five years: Probably the most respected and attractive wine and spirit company representing the most iconic portfolio and we will be one of the most innovative and game-changing marketing companies for our brands as well. Stepping beyond the typical marketing that we are perceiving in India with spirits and giving it a unique and game changing approach is one of the key transformations we hope to perceive in the next 5 years. The consumers will understand the sparkling wine in the next 5 years. The country has already seen 3 sparkling wines in 3 years entering the market so we could probably create more products and build progress as well.