A new range of wines from the Marche region of Italy is set to flood the Indian market in the month of February 2010. The Italian wines would be launched by Riona Wines, a joint venture between KT Mane and Cantine Enzo Mecella, and Terese Cortesi Moncaro. The Riona winery at Sangli, western Maharashtra, will also produce local Indian wines in due course of time. However, the immediate preference of the Indo-Italian joint venture is to import Italian wines and bottling them in India before sending them to the market. For the top end consumers, bottled Italian wines will also be imported. KT Mane holds majority stake in Riona wines, which is a 15 lakh litre capacity winery.

The Delhi Excise Bill 2009, passed by the assembly amidst protest from the opposition BJP members, has lowered the age of serving liquor from 25 years to 21 years. As the bill becomes an act, a person of 21 years of age also becomes eligible for acquiring a bar license. While the short-sighted bill empowers a 21-year-old male or female to sell liquor, it has not reduced the age for buying a drink. Based on the Model Excise Bill, 2005, the Delhi Excise Bill has increased the penalty for consuming liquor in public places from Rs. 200 to Rs. 5000. Public consumption of liquor that results in nuisance, can attract a fine of Rs. 10,000 and three months of imprisonment. However, there are some positive points in the bill too. With a view to stop the sale of spurious liquor in the country, the bill has introduced stringent measures to punish the guilty that range from six months of imprisonment to life imprisonment. In case of death as a result of mixing noxious substance in liquor, the guilty would attract a fine up to Rs. 1 million and death penalty or life imprisonment. Unlawful import or export of liquor would now attract non bailable punishment of six months to six years of rigorous imprisonment, along with a fine of up to Rs. 100,000. In order to enforce the provision of the bill, the government has also introduced a unique aspect of offering incentives to officers who seize liquor meant for smuggling.

The food and beverage industry has found an ally on the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), on opposing the new advertisement code circulated by the government. FICCI has taken up the issue with the Health Ministry of India as the guidelines circulated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) lacks clarity on several matters. The industry is especially concerned about the clause which seeks to make celebrities responsible for product endorsement. It here deserves a mention that the new advertisement code of the Health Ministry, which would be implemented by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, asks celebrities and prominent people who promote food to recognise their responsibility towards society and not promote food in such a way so as to undermine a healthy diet or parental guidelines. It must here be mentioned that at present there is no legally binding guidelines for maintaining advertisement standards for the food and beverage industry. The Health Ministry introduced the new set of guidelines as it suspected that by taking advantage of the absence of any regulatory authority for implementing advertisement standards, many players are indulging in promoting misleading advertisements.

As part of its High Spirits menu, India’s largest café chain, Café Coffee Day (CCD), is experimenting with coffee-based alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages at Chikmaglur, its research and development centre. Its slew of alcoholic beverages includes coffee-based vodka, rum, brandy, whisky, gin, and liqueurs. But its coffee beer, which tastes similar to regular beers (with a coffee aftertaste) is non alcoholic. The new set of beverages is slated to be launched in premium CCD outlets like Café Coffee Day Square. It is here worth noting that its rival Barista already offers wines, champagnes, regular beers and alcoholic coffee-based beverages at its Defence Colony outlet in New Delhi. Barista is planning to acquire more liquor license to serve alcoholic beverages. This reinvention of the menu by the two premium coffee chains of India reflects an effort to expand their customer base and offer variety to the existing customers.

Riding on the growth trajectory of its India operations, the US foods major Heinz is looking towards acquiring new business and pushing its growth in the country. Owner of two popular brands Glucon D and Complan, Heinz has recorded two digit growth in the emerging markets of India and China. The new investment would be in the areas of research and development, and marketing and building new factory. The primary competitors for Heinz in India are Nestle, HUL and Glaxo Smithkline. The company has invested Rs. 300 crore in India and looking forward to invest additional Rs. 100 crore in the current year. Complan, which has a market share of 15.7 percent in India’s milk drinks segment, has been relaunched in numerous varieties to suit the taste buds of diverse sections of India’s population. The product has been relaunched as Complan Nutri Bowl Muesli in Tamil Nadu, Complan Memory and Complan Milk Biscuits in Andhra Pradesh with local flavours such as strawberry and kesar badam. Another premier brand of Heinz—Glucon-D—, which has a market share of 62 percent in glucose drinks, is made available in orange, natural and nimbupani flavours in all parts of the country. The chief marketing strategy of the company has been to localise its global products as taste is culture specific to a great extent, which develops over a long period of time.

Baba Ram Dev’s biggest entrepreneurial venture saw the light of the day when Subodh Kant Sahay, Union Food Processing Minister, inaugurated Baba Ramdev’s ‘Food and Herbal Park’ at Haridwar, in Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Shiv Raj Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh, Prem Kumar Dhumal of Himachal Pradesh and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of Uttarakhand were also present on the occasion. Built on 100 acres of land, the food park is expected to attract Rs. 500 crore of investment. More than twenty companies would set up shops in the food park for producing 1000 million tonnes of organic, herbal and other agriculture products. The management claims that the food park would boost the income of the farmers as the raw materials would be procured directly from the farmers. The food park would also provide employment to nearly 50,000 families. It is here worth noting that the government has proposed the setting up of 10 mega food parks under the 11th Five Year Plan and assured a sum of Rs. 10,000 crores for the same purpose.

In order to enforce safety standards, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has voiced intention to make the safety standards ratings of various food and beverage firms public after doing the audit. FSSAI hopes that the public ratings would educate the consumers about the safety performance of the F&B firms and help them take an informed decision. On the other hand, the ratings would put pressure on the firms to conform to the safety standards set by the regulatory authorities of India. The first phase of the audit would cover the top companies operating in the country, while the second phase would cover the smaller food and beverage companies. As the mammoth exercise of auditing and rating of all the food and beverage companies requires a good number of accreditation agencies, the FSSAI is considering the option of including private players along with government agencies in the exercise.

With the Union Cabinet approving Pepsico Holdings Pvt. Ltd.’s proposal of investing $200 million in India within a period of three years, the company is now all set to expand its manufacturing capacity, R&D, supply chain and market infrastructure. In its new investment plans, the bottling partners of the company would contribute $50 million. In addition to the $200 million investment, the company had also announced the set up of four new plants in the coming three years, three of which would be on beverages. India is a significant market for the US-based soft drinks giant and the conglomerate intends to triple its business in the country every three years. Pepsico has at present 43 soft drink plants in the country.

Heineken has added one more feather in its cap as it is all set to acquire the beer business of Fomento Economico Mexicano, SAB de CV (FEMSA), a Mexico -based company. The all share transaction, which would cost the company $7.6 billion, is expected to close by the second quarter of 2010. As part of the deal, Heineken would takeover the Mexican beer operations of FEMSA—FEMSA Carveza and 83 per cent of Brazilian beer business of FEMSA. Following the deal, FEMSA would hold more than 20 percent stake in the Heineken Group, making FEMSA the second largest shareholder in the group. The deal also makes it obligatory on the part of the acquiring group to include two non-executive representatives to the supervisory board of Heineken. The deal would, however, come into effect only after the regulators and the shareholders of Heineken, Heineken Holding and FEMSA approve it.

Britannia Industries Ltd. has recently launched Nutrichoice Health Starter Kit, which is aimed at getting people to start leading a healthy lifestyle with a good balance of food and exercise, right from the beginning of the New Year. Britannia’s Nutrichoice Health Starter Kit (Limited Edition), comprises of three biscuit boxes from the tasty and wholesome NutriChoice range (5 Grain 200gms, Digestive 250gms, Nature Spice Crackers 169gms), along with a seven day pre-activated Talwarkars (TBVF) gym pass that can be used at any Talwarkars (TBVF) Gym. The 7 day gym pass can also be exchanged for one special consultation session with a Talwarkars (TBVF) certified nutritionist who will set you on the right health regime. In addition to this, the kit also contains a gym sipper bottle and a comprehensive health diet chart to advise you and monitor your daily diet. All this comes with no extra charges and no hidden costs. Speaking at the launch of Britannia’s Nutrichoice Health Starter Kit, Neeraj Chandra, COO, Britannia Industries Ltd., said, “It is our New Year resolution to make India more healthy. Several consumers have shared with us that their resolutions are sincere but somehow they don’t get started because they don’t find the right motivator. Fitness is 60 percent diet and 40 percent exercise, and that is why the Health Starter Kit was conceived to facilitate the start of both healthy eating and exercise.” The ace batsman Rahul Dravid also sounded enthusiastic about this innovative packaging. “The Britannia Health Starter Kit is a great idea and I am sure that people will take advantage of the opportunity and start the New Year on a healthy note,” he said. The Britannia Health Starter Kit is available from 1st January 2010 at all leading outlets, across major cities of India.

Alcohol and tobacco products in India may soon come under the goods and services tax as the Centre refused to accept the recommendation of the empowered group of State Finance Ministers to keep alcohol out of goods and services tax (GST). The Centre has suggested that while the states would be able to levy excise duty on alcohol, it would retain the right of levying GST or other additional taxes. It can here be mentioned that the empowered group of Ministers did not object to the Centre’s levying of excise duty and GST on tobacco products.