Shekhar Ramamurthy, Managing Director of United Breweries (UB), spoke to CNBC-TV18, says industry volume should grow between 5% and 8% over the next 12 months.

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“We hope that this year the industry will grow mid to high single digit and that is a positive," Ramamurthy said.

“It has always been our objective to grow ahead of the market and we have introduced a few new brands over the last couple of years. We are seeing very strong double-digit growth in our super premium brands,” Ramamurthy added.

“We have plans to launch our own craft beer variety hopefully by the end of this year. We have plans to enter the non-alcoholic beverage space. We hope to be in the market by end of the year,” he further mentioned.

Speaking on regional markets, he said in West Bengal the industry is in steep decline of 30-40% and in Maharashtra after the duty hike happened around October-November last year, industry still not stabilised.

He said steep price increase of beer has been a dampener for the company.

First Published:Apr 23, 2018 12:07 PM IST