NEW DELHI: United Spirits Ltd (USL), the Indian arm of global liquor major Diageo Plc, has hiked liquor prices in Maharashtra by 30-35%, following the state government’s decision to raise excise duties.Praveen Someshwar, CEO & MD of United Spirits, said the alcohol sector remained resilient compared with other fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) categories, but policy headwinds were affecting prices.”The most notable and recent one being from the state of Maharashtra, significant hikes in excise duties impacting IMFL or Indian-Made Foreign Liquor has led to spikes in the consumer maximum retail price (MRP), almost in the range of 30 to 40%. This is despite the company making some decisive and bold moves of not passing the complete burden to the consumer,” Someshwar said during the company’s post-earnings call on Thursday.Also Read | United Spirits to buy out Greater Than gin maker Nao Spirits in a ₹110 cr dealIn June, Maharashtra raised excise duty on IMFL by over 50%, with duties on country liquor and imported premium spirits also climbing, pushing retail prices up by roughly 14% and over 25%, respectively. The government also introduced a new category—Maharashtra-made liquor (MML)—to promote local spirits, which will be exempt from the hike.On the introduction of MML, Someshwar said the steps were “extreme” and could affect the consumer value proposition.“Maharashtra as a consumer market is significant for us, our national value salience in the state hovers in the mid-to-high teens. However, at this stage, it is too early for us to assess the complete impact of the announcement, as there are many moving parts around the MML entry,” he said.Someshwar said that the company’s early assessment indicated the IMFL market would likely contract due to steep price hikes, but added that consumption habits in the segment were relatively stable, so the decline was expected to be smaller than the scale of the price increases.Also Read | Alcohol’s become much more expensive in Maharashtra—but will still find takersHe noted that early signs point to mid-teen growth in consumer spending. “Early indicators, and I say very early indicators, suggest that the consumer spend is seeing mid-teen growth, which is very, very encouraging.”The company has taken a staggered approach to the price increase across different segments.“I don’t think there was a one-size fits-all, it was different brands priced differently and it was nicely laddered. If you see the middle—prestige level, we have absorbed significant sums of money. At lower prestige, there is marginal absorption, that’s not very big absorption in terms of absolute duties. At the popular (segment), we passed on everything…So it’s been done differently across brands and across categories,” he added. The popular segment consists of the company’s lower-priced portfolio of spirits.Someshwar remains “cautiously optimistic” about the state’s impact on the company’s liquor portfoli in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. 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United Spirits increases liquor prices by 30-35% in Maharashtra following a rise in excise duty.
