SIR JOHN NEW ‘BREWED IN INDIA’ BEER FROM CANADIAN BEER MAJOR

The subsidiary company of Canada based Azim Capital and Toronto Ale Brewing company, Kanoe Impex India Pvt. Ltd. recently rolled out its first brew from India called SIR JOHN.

The lager beer produced under a contractual brewing and bottling arrangement with Denzong Breweries Pvt Ltd (owned by the Bollywood actor Danny Denzongpa) is planning to produce half a million cases in coming fiscal year.

Toronto based Azim Capital is a company that has many business interests such as mining, Commodities Trading, Construction, media and investment banking, funds Toronto Ale Brewing Co. It is headed by the dynamic duo Jack Azimi and Mike Azimi.

While Toronto Ale Brewing Co. already has four styles of premium beer, Lager, Amber, Hefeweizen and Stout with 5%, 8% and 12% abv. , the company plans to introduce the well known 1793 KROY a lager beer from its imported beer portfolio in the near future.

“Kanoe Impex India Pvt Ltd was started with an aim to introduce Canadian beer recipes in India. Toronto Ale Brewing wishes to enter different jurisdictions across the globe in 6 phases. We have just started phase one with operations in India”, said Jay Gawade, the company’s COO.

Because of the brewery’s location in Odisha, it was the first market that SIR JOHN was launched last October. “We started with 0.2% of the market share in Odisha’s beer industry and our share is growing ever since. In 6 months we have achieved more than 40 thousand cases of primary sales. This is from the brewery to govt. owned warehouse as distribution and marketing in Odisha is by the State Beverages Corporation”, added Gawade.

The company has entire East India in radar with West Bengal operations beginning once new excise policy is out for 2018-19.  At present only the SIR JOHN strong variant is available in the Odisha market as the state has more than 90% market share of strong beer consumers. Soon there will be 3 other variants of SIR JOHN in the market including a new label called ‘Cold Strong’ which will be a premium beer with premium packaging and a lighter style than SIR JOHN using the ingredients imported from Canada. These new variants will cater to the more developed beer markets such as Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.

At present only the SIR JOHN strong variant is available in the Odisha market as the state has more than 90% market share of strong beer consumers. Soon there will be 3 other variants of SIR JOHN in the market including a new label called ‘Cold Strong’ which will be a premium beer with premium packaging and a lighter style than SIR JOHN using the ingredients imported from Canada. These new variants will cater to the more developed beer markets such as Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.

Gawade explains that as there are Canadian ingredients used in the recipe, even the strong beer is enjoyable for regular beer drinkers despite a higher level of alcohol content. Particularly, the combination of European and Canadian hops gives a good balance of bitterness and fruitiness in SIR JOHN which makes this beer a pleasant refreshing drink at 6.2% abv.

Speaking about the imported KROY range, he adds, “Once India provides healthy liquor policy for importing beer from abroad we will be bringing in KROY to the market. Right now it will be made available in the Middle East including Dubai and part of Africa”.

To read more about KROY see the link to our previous article Canadian Luxury Lifestyle Beer Brand 1793 KROY To Enter India