Viiking Beverages to launch 2 production units, exploring IPO route for funding

Viiking Beverages, popular for its  Kings Beer and the flagship company of Viiking Ventures, is on an expansion spree. Thanks to the summer, Kings has been in high demand and the company plans to launch two production units in India to meet the growing demand. One of the two new breweries would be in Rajasthan, and the other in the South.

In its first phase,  Viiking’s production capacity will double to 4 lakh cases in six months, from the present 2 lakh cases. The company is looking at funding to the tune of Rs 200 crore for the expansion.

For its second phase of expansion, Viiking is looking to go the IPO route. The company is expected to announce its IPO in financial year 2019-20.

With revenues to the tune of Rs 400 crore (2017-18), Kings competes with brands like Budweiser and Kingfisher.

“Our immediate goal is to expand the product portfolio of Viiking Beverages. The year 2017-18 has been phenomenal for the company with a growth rate of 300 percent and making our presence in more than 15 states in India and about seven countries in the world,” said Manoj Asrani, CEO of Viiking Beverages.

According to Asrani, the new production units will cater to growth in demand for Kings Beer across the country.

“Our recently launched Kings Goa Maxx, the strong lager beer, has seen a significant growth in its first month of being launched in Delhi by absorbing close to 10 percent of the market share,” Asrani added. About 63,000 cases of Kings Goa Maxx has been sold in Delhi in a month after its launch.

With added capacity, the company, that has already created a strong foothold in southern markets like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, will now cater to most of the northern markets.

Additionally, Goa’s Kings Beer that already has a presence in the global markets of UK, UAE and Australia has added newer international locations to their export portfolio that include Africa, US and Timor-Leste.