The top beer company in India, United Breweries, has stopped sending beer to Telangana state. They made this decision because the price they are allowed to charge for their beer hasn’t changed since 2019-20, even though their costs have gone up.
Vinod Giri, the Director General of the Brewers Association of India (BAI), said that the prices set by the state government are much too low. They are actually lower than what it costs the companies to make the beer. This means that the companies are losing money.
United Breweries, known for popular brands like Kingfisher and Heineken, said they started losing money when prices stayed the same despite higher costs. They also mentioned that the state owes them a lot of money—around Rs 3,900 crore—for beer supplied earlier this year, which is making things even worse.
BAI, which represents big beer brands like United Breweries and ABInBev, wrote to the Telangana government last year to highlight these problems. They pointed out that the costs of making beer have gone up by 40% due to rising expenses. Even though a committee was formed last year to decide new prices, they have not acted on it yet.
Giri believes the Telangana government will help solve this problem quickly because the state is usually friendly to businesses. He hopes they will step in soon to fix this situation, as the beer industry is struggling to survive.
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