The India Craft Beer market is projected to have reached 43 million litres in 2019 from 0.15 million litres in 2014. It has grown a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 304% during the period 2014 and 2018, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData 2018 Q4 consumer survey, 55% of Indian consumers prefers ‘to experiment with new alcoholic drinks’ while 63% of them prefer ‘to pay more for better quality alcoholic drinks.’ This consumer behaviour helps Bira91 to crack the Indian beer market and create a niche for itself.

Amit Gupta, Consumer Insights Analyst at GlobalData says: “Bira91, which was launched in 2015 in Indian market, has grown at a CAGR of around 406% from having a meagre volume market size of around 0.9 million litres in 2016 to around 23.1 million litres in 2018.”

A significant number of microbreweries have also come up across the country as the demand for craft beer rises. Larger players in the market like United Breweries have also started taking note of the segment with their recent launch of Kingfisher Ultra Witbier, which is a locally made Belgian wheat beer and has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of less than 5%.

Amit concludes: “The main reason for such a strong growth in the brand sales is because of the differentiated product offering and the positioning of the brand. It has less bitterness compared to conventional beer brands. At the same time, it has been marketed as an unorthodox premium beer with a distinct taste that resonates well with the urban millennium and hence, it was a runaway success.”