Being the King, And Having a Good Time

United Breweries’ Rishi Pardal is focusing on penetration and premiumization to maintain Kingfisher’s 50%-plus beer market share

- Saurabh Kumar

Rishi Pardal joined United Breweries Ltd (UBL) as the new chief executive officer and managing director in the mid of 2020, the ‘dry’ days. The COVID-19 virus induced pandemic, and the subsequent lockdowns across the country, meant zero sales. Tough time for a chief to come in. However, that is past. “I think we managed the last two years well. My biggest hope and desire for this year is that we have a normal summer. I think that is the single most important thing in the short to medium term. It will give us a chance to do stuff that we have only been planning to do in the last couple of years and achieve scale,” said Pardal.

During the lockdown when restaurants and bars were closed, UBL started a campaign to encourage consumption of ‘beer at home’ to make it a more socially acceptable drink. “We’ve always anchored the brand in a deep consumer connect, looked at what the Indian consumer finds aspirational, what parts of those we can leverage for a very social beverage. We have tried to marry those things together.” UBL, the owner of Kingfisher beer, is now controlled by Dutch-based Heineken which own 61.5 per cent stake in the India brewer.

Twin Pillars of Growth