India: United Breweries set to leave its unit at Varanad in Kerala

After producing Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) for more than six decades, United Breweries Ltd is set to leave its unit at Varanad near Cherthala in Alappuzha district in Kerala. One of the oldest breweries in the state, UBL has started serving termination letters on its employees. With the employee unions raising protest, the state government convened a meeting of management and the unions in Thiruvananthapuram on August 25. However, it was postponed since company representatives did not turn up, the New Indian Express reported on August 27.

It was Vittal Mallya, father of Vijay, who started the brewery on the side of Vembanad Lake in 1959 following his acquisition of McDowell’s. “McDowell’s began bottling Bisquit Brandy and Dorville French Brandy from imported concentrates, thus becoming the first company to manufacture IMFL. The company opened India’s first distillation plant to manufacture extra-neutral alcohol (ENA) at Cherthala in 1961. The plant began bottling products for Herbertsons Ltd of the Anglo Thai Group the same year.

The company launched Golden Grape Brandy, its first original product, in 1962 and McDowell’s No.1 brandy in 1963-64 when its contract with Herbertsons expired. In the early 1960s, the company acquired Carew and Co and Phipson and Co, manufacturers of rum, gin, and other hard liquors,” said a former employee.

The company was established on 14.8 acres of land taken on lease for 99 years. Later, when Vijay took over the company, he bifurcated it into two divisions — United Breweries (beer) and United Spirits (IMFL).

After the fall of Vijay, in 2016, the British Brewery Diageo ran the company. Though the unit continued to produce beer, it started sacking employees. With the spread of Covid in 2019, the unit stopped the production of beer, too. In 2021, Diageo handed over the ownership to another international liquor producer Heineken, which owns UBL now.

There were around 350 permanent employees and 500 contract labourers in the company in 2000, but it came down to 43 and 180, respectively. Production was stopped completely in 2019.“The company cut production saying that the production cost was high at Varanad. Later the management demanded more land from the state government. But the handover of the ownership led to the sacking of employees. The meeting will be held after Onam and we expect a good response from the company management,” McDowell’s and HRV Employees Union (CITU) secretary K P Sreekumar.

It was Vittal Mallya, father of Vijay, who started the brewery on the side of Vembanad Lake in 1959 following his acquisition of McDowell’s.

The company was established on 14.8 acres of land taken on lease for 99 years.

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