PARIS (Reuters) -France’s Pernod Ricard has agreed to sell its Imperial Blue whisky brand to India’s Tilaknagar Industries for an enterprise value of 412.6 million euros ($486 million), as the spirits group boosts its focus on premium labels.
Pernod Ricard sold 22.4 million 9 litre cases of Imperial Blue whisky in the fiscal year ended March 2025 across India and other markets. Its sale of the brand includes a 28 million euro deferred payment due four years after the deal closes.
The world’s second-largest Western spirits maker by revenue after Diageo on Wednesday said the deal would be “immediately and meaningfully accretive” to Pernod Ricard India’s margin and sales growth upon closing.
The French group has been streamlining its business and focusing on its core portfolio of pricey, global brands amid a sector-wide downturn in sales.
Chairman and CEO Alexandre Ricard said the sale would “sharpen our focus on more profitable and faster growing brands in India, as in the rest of the world”.
Jean Touboul, CEO of Pernod Ricard India, said the deal would notably allow Pernod Ricard to allocate resources more effectively towards high-growth brands in India such as Royal Stag and Blenders Pride, as well as international brands like Chivas, Jameson, Absolut and Ballantine’s.
Pernod Ricard sees India, the group’s second-largest market after the United States, as key to future growth. Alcohol sales in India are projected to hit $61.35 billion in fiscal 2025–26, showed data from analytics firm CRISIL.
Imperial Blue, a leading mass-market whisky, competes with United Spirits’ McDowell’s No.1 in India. Pernod Ricard regards it as a local-value brand, less central than its premium global labels like Chivas Regal.
For Tilaknagar Industries, a dominant player in India’s brandy market with Mansion House, the deal marks a strategic shift into whisky – a faster-growing, higher-margin segment.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Inbrew Beverages and Tilaknagar Industries each sought to bid around $500 million for Imperial Blue.
Global spirits makers are reworking strategies as post-pandemic liquor demand slumps amid inflation, interest rate hikes, tariff risk and shifting consumer habits.
($1 = 0.8491 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon in Paris and Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter and Christopher Cushing)
