Pernod Ricard sells Imperial Blue whisky to India's Tilaknagar Industries
said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its
Imperial Blue whisky
business to Indian liquor maker
Tilaknagar Industries
, as the French spirits group boosts its focus on premium labels in its portfolio.
The world's No. 2 Western spirits maker did not disclose the value of the deal, but said that on completion it was expected to be "immediately and meaningfully accretive" to Pernod Ricard India's operating margin and net sales growth rate.
Explore courses from Top Institutes in
Please select course:
Select a Course Category
others
MCA
PGDM
Artificial Intelligence
Public Policy
Leadership
Digital Marketing
Design Thinking
Technology
healthcare
Cybersecurity
Finance
Others
Operations Management
Data Analytics
Data Science
Project Management
Healthcare
Product Management
MBA
Management
CXO
Degree
Data Science
Skills you'll gain:
Duration:
16 Weeks
Indian School of Business
CERT - ISB Cybersecurity for Leaders Program India
Starts on
undefined
Get Details
The transaction is subject to approval from the competition commission of India, and is expected to close within the coming months, Pernod Ricard said in a statement.
The news comes as the French group looks to streamline its business and focus on its core portfolio of pricey, global brands amid a sector-wide downturn in sales.
Pernod Ricard Chairman and CEO Alexandre Ricard said the sale would "sharpen our focus on more profitable and faster growing brands in India, as in the rest of the world".
Live Events
Jean Touboul, CEO of Pernod Ricard India, said it would notably allow Pernod Ricard to allocate resources more effectively towards high-growth brands in India such as Royal Stag, Blenders Pride, as well as international brands like Chivas, Jameson, Absolut, and Ballantine's.
Pernod Ricard sees India, the group second-largest market, as key to future growth. Alcohol sales in India are projected to hit $61.35 billion in fiscal 2025-26, according to CRISIL.
Imperial Blue, a top-selling mass-market whisky, competes in India with the likes of United Spirits' McDowell's No.1.
Pernod Ricard views it as a local, value brand, and therefore not as central to its strategy as pricier, global labels like Chivas Regal.
For
Tilaknagar Industries
, a dominant player in India's brandy market with Mansion House, the deal marks a strategic shift into whisky, a faster-growing, higher-margin segment.
Tilaknagar Industries has been in turnaround mode, returning to profit after debt restructuring and widening distribution.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
19 minutes ago
- Time of India
McPatel takes on McDonald's over ‘Mc' monopoly
Ahmedabad: In what promises to be the mother of all delicious legal battles over the use of 'Mc', which means 'son of', a local food company, McPatel Foods Pvt Ltd, has dragged global fast-food giant McDonald's Corporation to the court. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The Ahmedabad-based firm, which sells French fries under the brand 'Ohh! Potato', filed a trademark suit accusing McDonald's of issuing "groundless threats" over its use of the prefix. Last month, McPatel moved the Ahmedabad rural court, seeking to restrain McDonald's from objecting to the use of 'Mc' in its name. The suit was filed under Section 142 of the Trademark Act to prevent the multinational company from issuing "groundless threats". According to senior counsel H S Tolia, representing McPatel, "McDonald's issued a notice to McPatel claiming that the prefix Mc is its identity and insisted that the local company should stop using this prefix or else it would take legal action. Since initiating mediation proceedings is a prerequisite before filing a commercial suit, McDonald's instituted mediation proceedings in the Delhi high court and McPatel participated in it. However, McDonald's was adamant that McPatel must not use Mc in its trademark and the parties could not reach any compromise." "Since the mediation proceedings did not yield any result, McPatel filed a suit in the Ahmedabad rural court, seeking to restrain McDonald's from threatening it with legal action," added Tolia. "This is because McPatel is entitled to use the prefix Mc on several counts. We contend that the prefix Mc is very generic, and it means 'son of'. By citing different examples of the use of this prefix, we have stated that the name suggests the son of Patel. It is aimed at honouring the Patel community." The court has issued a notice to McDonald's and scheduled a hearing on the matter for July 28.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
5 years on, India resumes tourist visas to Chinese
NEW DELHI: After a five-year hiatus, and ahead of a possible visit by PM Narendra Modi to China next month for the SCO summit, India announced resumption of tourist visas for Chinese nationals. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Both sides have looked to facilitate people-to-people exchanges to normalise ties. China, which has been keen to resume direct air services, welcomed the decision as a positive move. The Indian embassy in Beijing announced the decision effective July 24 on Weibo, China's microblogging site, on a day the two countries also held another round of diplomatic talks on border affairs, expressing satisfaction with the "general prevalence of peace and tranquillity in the border areas, leading to gradual normalisation of bilateral relations". India and China have had frequent high-level engagements since Modi's meeting with President Xi Jinping in Kazan last year, following the agreement to complete the disengagement of troops at the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh. The decision to restart tourist visa services for Chinese nationals is the second significant step towards normalisation, after the resumption of Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. China welcomes India decision on tourist visas The Chinese foreign ministry said, "This is a positive move. Easing cross-border travel serves the interests of all parties. China will maintain communication and consultation with India to further facilitate travel between the two countries." Chinese foreign minister and special representative (SR) for boundary talks Wang Yi is expected to visit India soon for the next round of SR (special representative) talks with NSA Ajit Doval and, with the thaw in ties holding up, Modi himself is likely to visit China for the SCO summit, to be held Aug 31-Sept 1. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now If it happens, this will be Modi's first visit to the country in seven years. During his recent visit to China, foreign minister S Jaishankar had said, while citing the complex international situation, that as neighbouring nations and major economies, an open exchange of views and perspectives between India and China was very important. In the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination (WMCC) talks on India-China border affairs, according to an Indian readout, the two sides agreed to maintain regular exchanges and contacts on issues related to the boundary affairs at the diplomatic and military levels through established mechanisms. The focus was also on the upcoming SR talks for which Wang will be in India. "The two sides also prepared for the next round of Special Representatives' talks on the India-China boundary question to be held in India later this year," the Indian readout said. Doval had travelled to China for the last round of SR boundary talks in Dec 2024. Doval and Wang had then reiterated the importance of maintaining a "political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship" while seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for settlement of boundary question, and resolved to inject vitality into the process.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Gemini goes local as Google courts Indian developers
Bengaluru: When Indian developers previously queried Google's AI models, their requests travelled thousands of kilometres to servers in other countries before returning with responses. That status quo changed a bit when Google unveiled four announcements at its developer-focused I/O event in Bengaluru on Wednesday, with one of the announcements being the localisation of AI processing within India's borders. "Indian developers can now use the powerful AI capabilities of Gemini 2.5 Flash here in India," Bikram Singh Bedi, vice president of Google Cloud Asia Pacific, told TOI. "Processing will now be available in India, and this is going to be critical from a perspective of data residency as well as low latency." The announcement addresses two critical concerns for Indian businesses – data residency regulatory concerns and latency issues. Previously, queries to Google's AI models would route through servers in the US or other global regions, not anymore though. "Certain applications need low latency, especially the ones where you're looking for real-time responses," Bedi explained. You Can Also Check: Bengaluru AQI | Weather in Bengaluru | Bank Holidays in Bengaluru | Public Holidays in Bengaluru The importance of low latency becomes clear when considering real-world applications. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years IC Markets Learn More Undo For video streaming services, even milliseconds of delay can mean the difference between smooth playback and frustrating buffering. Financial trading platforms require split-second responses, whilst customer service chatbots need immediate responses to maintain natural conversations. Manufacturing systems monitoring equipment breakdowns cannot afford delays that might result in costly production stoppages. The second major announcement centred on Firebase, Google's popular development platform. "We have deeply integrated the Gemini 2.5 Pro into our development platforms - both AI Studio and Firebase Studio," Bedi revealed. "Developers can now use multimodal prompts — video, image, speech, text — and they can build full-stack AI applications with AI-generated templates and powerful agentic features." The integration, Bedi said, allows developers to give simple prompts directly within the code editor to generate complete applications. Hardware constraints, a perennial concern for Indian developers targeting budget smartphones, formed the backdrop to announcement number three. Google unveiled Gemma 3, the newest member of its open-source family, and highlighted the Gemma 3n variant optimised for devices with as little as 2 giga byte of RAM. "Gemma 3 is significantly ahead of anything else out there and they're supporting 140 languages, including six Indian languages," Bedi said. Skills, rather than silicon, framed the final set piece. Last year's Gen AI Exchange programme—an online academy and hackathon series launched by Google and supported by the central govt—registered 270,000 learners and reached five million developers through satellite events. "Courses completed have topped thirty thousand, but that is only the warm-up," Bedi said, announcing a second edition hackathon that opens for entries next month. Winners will receive Google Cloud credits, mentoring, and a fast track to showcase their projects at next year's I/O. The exchange, launched first in India and now spreading worldwide, is designed to close what Google and other analysts peg as a severe skills gap across IT and security roles. According to Bedi, enterprises in India are rapidly adopting AI in a slew of different verticals. "Look at Federal Bank of India - they are leveraging our AI to improve customer service. They have this friendly AI personal assistant called Fedi," Bedi explained. "They are seeing a 25% rise in customer satisfaction and 50% saving in customer care cost." Mahindra & Mahindra is another example of a large Indian conglomerate leveraging AI in diverse ways, said Bedi. "They are using our Google Cloud Vertex AI platform for cutting-edge work in R&D, engineering, simulations, and manufacturing plants. They're looking at use cases like zero breakdown, energy consumption optimization, among others," Bedi said. Uttar Pradesh, Bedi said, is building an open agricultural network on Gemini "to put micro climate data and market prices in every farmer's pocket". Such examples, he argued, show that generative AI has moved from a curiosity to a basic requirement for organisations and state govts that want to stay competitive.
