In good spirits: Beam Global bets big on India

Beam Global Spirits & Wine is a company better known perhaps by its brands. Laphroaig, Teacher’s, Cockburn’s Port, and Canadian Club are just some from a long list of popular brands of the company. Its flagship brand, Jim Beam dates back to 1795. The spirits company's popular cognac Courvoisier was billed the ‘Cognac of Napoleon’ and continues to be one of the leading cognac brands in the world. 

It is the fourth largest premium spirits company in the world. The company has a single vision, which is to build brands that people want to talk about and its strategy in achieving its vision is to be bold, innovative, creative and unique.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Matthew J Shattock, President & CEO of Beam Global Spirits & Wine, who joined the company in March this year, spoke about the business, the road ahead for the company and the opportunities India presents to it. 

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Matthew Shattock on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video. 

Q: When you joined as CEO in March this year, it was a tough market. When do you think the consumer is going to come back? 

A: I wonder if the old consumers will come back. I think consumers have been through an interesting experience during this recession, and I think they will emerge from it with a much greater sense of looking for a genuine value in term of authenticity and quality of brands they buy rather than perhaps in the past buying brands purely on image alone. 

Q: You said that what you are seeing in your industry is that consumers, lots of them no longer go to a bar and order a drink; they’d rather pick up a bottle; take it home and open it there. So obviously the value proposition becomes far more important. How do you cope with that? 

A: There certainly has been a shift in the consumption of the consumer in a number of our markets, what we call the on premise in bars to the off premise where they buy in stores and take it home. And certainly there is quite a slow recovery in a lot of markets taking place; I do not see that changing.

Our business is fortunate; we have quite a significant bias towards the off premise. That’s where the roots of our business lie. And so going forward we have to adapt to that and make sure we focus the right effort and resources on the right channel. 

However at the end of the day, I do not think consumers in any markets are going to give up having a good time. I think they want to go back and as they feel more money in their pockets, I am sure the balance will be restored. 

Q: When do you think that will happen? Are you saying that the economic crisis gets over, you see the consumer going exactly back to what you were doing earlier or do you think something is going to change in him? 

A: I see a bit of both. I think certainly they will loosen up in terms of their spending habits and have a greater propensity to go out and enjoy themselves. However I do not think they will be as extravagant as they were in the past and I think they will be more conscious about the value they are getting no matter what the spending situation. 

Q: Is it more so of the consumers in the developed market or is it true for consumers across the world? 

A: It is a universal phenomenon that is going on. But clearly the depth of the impact felt in a particular market will correlate to the change we are seeing taking place. In markets like India whilst there has been an impact, it has continued its growth during a recession when many other GDPs have gone into reverse. 

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