'It’s expensive to make single malts in India as compared to Scotland': DeVANS Modern Breweries MD

Indians love their whisky and we are the largest whisky-consuming nation in the world. Consider this: in 2022 we consumed 241.7 million cases as per a report by Expert Market Research. Little wonder we are the darlings of the world’s largest whisky companies, be it Diageo or Pernod Ricard. In fact, we recently toppled France to become the largest importer of Scotch whisky. Last year, we imported over 219 million bottles of Scotch whisky, a 60 per cent hike over the previous year.  

Our love for whisky is not lost on domestic brands; quite a few have hit the market recently. One of the latest on the block is GianChand from DeVANS Modern Breweries -- a brand that has nearly 60 years of production to its name. It’s primarily been making beer with Godfather, being its biggest brand.

“We have been a supplier of malt to big companies for over three decades. We used to supply one-year-old matured spirit to big companies and they used it as a blend. But our maturation capacity was more than what was being sold. Soon we had malt that was aged for more than one year. We had 4-year-old matured spirit so the idea of launching our own single malt came about,” says Prem Dewan, Managing Director of DeVANS Modern Breweries, which has its main distillery in Jammu.  

Dewan says they were ready with their product almost four years ago but packaging took a long time and then they had to deal with Covid-19. The whisky was finally launched in November last year.  

Single malts in India mature faster than their Scottish counterparts. This, owing to the region’s weather conditions. Bottles produced here often do not feature age statements, with malts requiring only a few years – minimum of three in oak casks – to be deemed ideal for drinking. “Indian malts never give an age statement. We say that one-year maturity in India is equal to four years in Scotland. That’s a thumb rule. So, a 4-year-old is equivalent to a 16-year-old Scotch but if we put the age statement as 4-years-old, consumers will not understand,” says Dewan. GianChand is matured in American oakwood bourbon barrels.

Dewan says even in terms of cost, it’s expensive to make single malts in India as compared to Scotland. “The downside of our weather is that we lose over 12 per cent of the spirit every year. Then we pay bank interest of 12 per cent. That’s where the shoe pinches because when you compare it to the interest rates in Scotland, it’s only 2-3 per cent there. Inflation is also only 2 per cent there while it is much higher here. So, there is no comparison to costs.”  

Currently, they are supplying around 1,000 cases every month to markets in Jammu, Ladakh, Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand. The brand will expand to Goa, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh soon. “However, we will not increase supply. We want stocks to last for the next three years,” says Dewan. The company has set up another maturation plant near its existing unit and will be ready with more stock three years from now. “The new unit has a capacity of 20,000 barrels so once the liquid there matures, we will have enough for a decade,” he says.

GianChand will also be exporting to Russia and USA. It is also looking at launching two new variants.

While the single malt is a pet project named after the founder of the company, Dewan Gian Chand, maximum sales continue to come from the beer market and the malt supply business. The company posted a turnover of over Rs 800 crore in 2022-2023 and expects to cross over Rs 1,000 crore next year.

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