India: SABMiller India increases brewing capacity at Aurangabad plant

SABMiller India Brewery has expanded its brewing capacity at the Aurangabad plant from 170,000 cases per month to 700,000 cases. The brewery, modernised at an outlay of Rs 38 crore, would cater mainly to the markets in Maharashtra and some pockets of Andhra Pradesh, stated Sandeep Kumar, the director of corporate affairs of the company. The capacity expansion at Aurangabad is part of the company's plans to improve manufacturing facilities and quality of products across its breweries for which the company has earmarked an investment of $125 million (Rs 625 crore) over the next five years, Kumar said.

The refurbished plant with a high level of automation has a brew house and ultra-modern filtration systems which would enable recycling of treated waste water to meet potable water standards for use in the plant, Kumar stated. He added that the company had an employee strength of 350 at the plant, and though there won't be any significant addition to this number as part of the expansion plan, there would be an indirect employment generation at the local level.

In the second phase, the capacity of the brewery would have 1 million cases a month and would include replacement of labellers, pasteurizer and additional unit -tanks, Kumar informed, adding that the second phase would entail only 'marginal' additional investment.

Kumar stated the company initiated a move to encourage farmers to grow barley varieties suitable for the production of beer. "The first such effort was initiated in Rajasthan last year, where the state government offered to help educate farmers opt for the new varieties of barley in order to increase the yield and quality as required by beer producers," Kumar said.

SABMiller involved leading agri-scientists from Europe as advisors to the project, as the best variety of barley for beer making was available there, he said.

The move was initiated recently and any tangible result would show up later, he clarified. On the choice of Rajasthan, he said the state already produced barley and the issue was only to convince the farmers to shift to a different variety for better returns.

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