Hyderabad: As Telangana Beverages Corporation Limited (TGBCL) started rationing beer supply to liquor depots after United Breweries Ltd (UB) announced suspension of beer supply to Telangana, sources pointed out that the existing breweries will take a maximum of 15-20 days to ramp up production levels or start supply if a new label gets approval.
Therefore, even with the entry of a new company, breweries will need time to achieve a balanced supply. There are 16 to 20 different beer labels registered in state, of which six to eight have not produced beer in large supply.
In fact, state has six breweries, including two owned by United Breweries, which have the capacity to produce around 69 lakh cases of beer per month. Of these, the two United Breweries plants produce around 35 lakh cases per month.
Another company, which has the second largest market share in the state, can produce around 23 lakh cases, while two smaller companies each have the capacity to produce around five lakh cases per month.
Interestingly, one of these smaller companies had already reduced its beer supply to the state before United Breweries’ recent announcement to stop supply. All the breweries are located in the Sangareddy district, where the Manjeera water is accessible. Some of them supply beer to Andhra Pradesh.
This indicates that the state has a production capacity of 69 lakh cases, but only about 40 lakh cases are supplied according to demand.
According to sources, companies having these breweries has 15-17 registered labels. However, it takes at least over a week for any company to increase production or start new production, as the brewing process takes that long.
Sources said there was a huge demand for the beer from liquor shops as they felt the pressure of needing more during Sankranti, there could be some black marketing by them. “There may be more such cases in the next few days,” sources said.
