Suraj Shenoy responds to Nikhil Kamath's question on whether any competitor has been able to overtake Old Monk's dominance in Indian rum.
Insight
Shenoy: Indian alcobev brands mask poor retention through rapid geographic expansion
“So by the time you go to Thana and you're going to the suburbs and everything, you're still growing because you're doing primary sales, but your original core consumers doesn't come back to you repeat. This, you start going from Thana now to Nasik, from Nasik …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Shenoy: 25% aggregator commissions make online alcohol delivery unviable for brands
“When you do the delivery model and you start adding that extra cost, I think somewhere around your, you're already having your back towards the wall when it comes to margins for liquor companies, if it stretches to what Zometo or Swiggy do, Or 25%, then it bec…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Shenoy: Bira gets most volume from mass strong beer category
“Beera also gets majority of its volumes from the same category as Hayward's 5000 and Kingfisher's Strong, where it's the base category where in certain states they really get a lot of volume.”
Insight
Shenoy: Zero-to-one alcobev brands must build tertiary retail demand before signing distributors
“If you are an absolute zero to one person starting out, I would say once you identified what product you are doing, just take a few bottles and there are three layers to distribution. What you manufacture is called as the primary. Then you, what your distribut…”
Insight
Shenoy: Beer is the hardest alcohol to produce because flaws cannot hide
“That's why beer is the hardest because you have no room to hide. You're just doing pure fermentation. It's the hardest thing to do because you make a mistake. Anybody will catch.”
Opinion
Shenoy: Hard seltzers will lack stickiness in India compared to the US
“The Americans were mixing their whiskies with coke, but we in India are anyway mixing with soda and water. So if you're going to create a seltzer, everybody's making their own seltzers here. So how are you even, it's, so it's to make something like that from a…”