You are already No-3, after the Diageo_USL combine and the French spirit major Pernod RicardS In. dian arm. What are your vision for your companys future. Let us be clear about it now. Diageo and pernod Ricard are international majors. They are ahead of us in volume and valuation, indeed. We are the largest among the Indian companies but are not interested in number game. Bottomline is the driving force. Otherwise we ill be making a erious mistke. The entire industry got a shock when Pernod Ricard, the one that makes Royal Stag in India eclared a profit which was higher than te Vijay Mallya led United Spirits. That time when it happened USLs Bagpiper was declared by the international anal;ysts as the largest selling whisk,y in the world. USL has long been controlling between 50 to 60 % of the market while Pernod Ricard was hardly 7 to %.How the industry reacted reacted after the revelation?The industry as a whole hs put in place initiatives to change gear from volume to bottomline. A new word was created, premiumisation.They upgraded many brands to premium level, enhancing the profit margin. What ABD did ?ABD has come out with premium brands, Officers Choice Blue and Officers Choice Black both in premium segments. This is in fact a serious diverisification ,When do you think you will be able to become the no-2. No-2 I am mentioning because No- 1 is too far ahead of you.Before two years we wil be catching up with Pernod Ricard.In Volumes then in valuation. Basically by backward integration.Since we do not have distilleries of our own we buy alcohol.We are looking for distilleries, one in each of the four zones ie North South East and west. And we already have sufficient no of bottling plants.And we will be introducing new brands soon besides giving a boost to the existing brands.How often brands succeed in liquor business?Very often they fail One in 10 brands succeed. Even if you put all your might behind one brand, it may fail. To establish a brand you , a premium one, you may well have to spend about 50 cr. Still it may fail. I say it is luck?Luck? When a brand becomes a success, all that analysis and brand and advertisent and managerial logic are prssed into service to explain the logic of it. But I say brand success hnges upon pure luck.I will explain to you this ay. A director makes a movie and and it becomes a success. Then his second movies flops at box office. You cannot explain away both. Luck is a factor. Vijay Mallyas UB hs a many millionaire barnds. Bagpiper, Msdowell No-1, Signature ,to say a few. They all bsucceeded becaue luck.Mallya did not make these brands. He bought the companies which ownd thee brands. The he polished them.

How you plan to finance An IPO is in the offing?An IPO is being planned. For Rs 500 cr. This will be issued in two years.How many distilleries USL own. May be 14-16, I do not know exactly.Are you the new liquor baron, after Vijay mallya exited the place?I do not know seriously. Amnd I do not know the word baron has a positive or negative connotation.But I know we are already there and as I told you we are the largest Indian spirit company. Besides, Do not write off Mallya. He failed in one business, the airline business. That dos not mean that he is a failure. He is active in other business.Are you still friends, Mallya and You?Yes, we have always been friends, though in business we are rivals and have foguth well in market as wel s in courts. When did you meet Mallya first time ?In 1984. In England Hyver Hale, outskiert of London. With my brother Manu Chhabria. He was young and talked business. I then know he knew his business well.That was for buying Shaw Wallace?Yes. What was the reason for split the Chhabrias and Mallya splitting over Shaw WallaceComplications arose but I do not want to narrate it here, they wre too complicated. But Mallyas stand was tht he hd never been involved in buying Shaw Wallae as he as nota non-resident at that time. After that when did you call Mallya for doing business together.When I Parted ways with my brother.Who called first, You or Mallya?I called first.Was he receptive?Very.And when did both of you begin fihting.When the Income-tax raid took place. The I-T officials found that I had bought shares in vbiolation of the agreement we had taht nobody would attempt to increase the shareholding in Herbertsons.Was the agreement written or verbalMostly verbal.Therfeero he thought you have breached the agreement so the differences started.He also breached the contract. He increased shareholding to 44 %. Mine became 51 %.