The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Beer lovers find themselves in a tizzy

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Saturday, Apr 30, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Beer lovers find themselves in a tizzy

K.V.S. Madhav

HYDERABAD: Beer lovers in the State, the nation's largest guzzler, are in a tizzy when they ought to be fizzy! The reason? Popular brands in both ordinary and strong beer segments have vanished from the market taking the sparkle away.

The ongoing tussle between the Andhra Pradesh Breweries Corporation Limited (APBCL) and breweries over finalisation of rates in the new excise regime, beginning April 1, has seen available stocks getting exhausted. What more, there has been no replenishment the entire month with the breweries shutting shop. Even the buffer stock with the APBCL and retailers that would normally suffice for an entire month vanished in a jiffy.

Retailers insist the stock of popular brands would not last beyond the next few days. Hardly 1,000 cases of the leading brand are left while the number would have been a staggering eight lakh cases in normal times!

Thirst peaks in May

April, said to be the cruellest month, brings out the best from Bachchus lovers of the State, who consume a whopping 21 lakh cases of beer against the normal intake of 12 to 15 lakh cases. The thirst peaks in the month of May with the demand shooting up to 24 lakh cases.

The bone of contention is said to be the demand of beer suppliers to increase their margins, which remained unchanged for seven years with the corporation refusing to buy the high prices quoted by them in the recent tenders.

Drop in margin

With frantic exercise on to fill the gap in supplies, the big players have kept away. Two slow moving brands have entered into an agreement with APBCL this week - a multi national brand and another from a domestic brewer - for supply of beer in these scarce days. "But, the combined production capacity of both the brands is three lakh cases per month, a far cry from the peak demand," says the president of Andhra Pradesh State Wine Dealers Association, D. Venkateswara Rao. Retailers too are peeved saying their margin is reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent while sales tax and excise duty have been up.

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