In March 2025, Allied Blenders & Distillers, the largest Indian-owned alcobev firm, moved its premium brands to a new luxury subsidiary, ABD Maestro. It invested ₹70 crore for an 80 percent stake, with actor Ranveer Singh owning the balance.
Maestro’s portfolio includes owned brands such as Zoya gin and Arthaus whisky; acquired labels Woodburns whisky, Segredo Aldeia rum and Pumori gin; and international partners such as Russian Standard vodka. Over the last fortnight, it has launched Rangeela vodka, and Yello whisky, made from a blend of Scottish malts and Indian malt whiskies. With Maestro, ABD is targeting a meaningful share of the Indian luxury spirits market, roughly 12 million cases a year. “We’re building Maestro as a startup inside a mass-market giant,” says Bikram Basu, its managing director. In this interview, Basu talks about portfolio strategy, market focus, and where he sees the next phase of premium alcobev growth.
ABD is the first large Indian spirits company to formally carve out a separate premium-and-luxury subsidiary. Why did Maestro need to sit outside the mothership?
Two reasons. One is focus. The other is culture and operating rhythm. In a large mass-market company, the last seven days of the month are dominated by sales and production pressure. Whatever you say about “quality” and “long-term”, the reality is that the machine has to move. Premium and luxury need a different way of working: longer lead times, different packaging skills, slower line speeds. The front end is also different. Going to 15 general-trade shops a day is not the same as working with hotel chains, fine-dining bars or high-energy clubs. Those capabilities didn’t exist inside ABD in a concentrated way, so we built a separate team: people strong in tech, people who understand cocktails and mixology, and a more flexible, project-based model for creative and strategy. Maestro genuinely runs like a startup, even though it has ABD’s scale behind it.
As you build Maestro’s premium portfolio, how do you decide which brands become long-term bets, which remain tactical, and when bottled-in-origin makes sense?
Our long-term core will always be brands we can own or tightly shape, which mean acquired labels like Woodburns and Pumori, and newer creations such as Arthaus, Zoya, Rangeela and Yello. Alongside that, we selectively partner with independent international brands that don’t have meaningful distribution in India. ABD gives them scale in retail, and Maestro adds the premium on-trade capability which ABD didn’t historically have. Anything outside that framework is tactical, short-term distribution. On bottled-in-origin versus bottled-in-India, we follow a dual strategy. For accessible price points, bottling in India with 100 percent imported Scotch works well, especially with the duty reductions under the FTA. Arthaus is an example. It is bottled in India but made from fully imported Scotch malt. For limited editions and luxury malts, bottled-in-origin makes more sense, including an aged malt whisky we plan to launch in the next few months. Longer term, our new malt unit in Rangnapur (Telangana) will add an Indian malt stream to the portfolio.
Do premium spirits still need pan-India scale to succeed, or is depth in a few large markets enough?
India presents a large opportunity, but it’s a huge country. Unlike earlier years, you may not always have pan-India successes. There is enough opportunity in the top 5–10 markets alone to pick up substantial share and do well. We feel we will be in a good space as the portfolio matures. If you look at IMFL overall, about 64–65 percent is whisky, 20–21 percent brandy, 12 percent rum and 3–4 percent other spirits. But in the premium segments we play in, 89–90 percent is whisky and the remaining 10 percent is gin and vodka. Brandy and rum drop to 0.001, so you have to open the decimals. You either try to build a market in those categories, or you participate where the opportunity already is.
How seriously are you looking at the indigenous spirits space?
It would be foolish for a large Indian player like us not to look at it. There is genuine interest from everyone, and we have the ability to scale. It’s not only about mahua; there is feni and several other indigenous spirits tied to specific geographies. The real question is whether you can secure a consistent, quality supply chain at scale. Mahua flowers, for instance, are spread across Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra. Maharashtra has taken an enabling policy stance, which helps, but if you want to move beyond “I launched 100 cases and ticked a box”, you need supply security, quality, and the ability to ride out good and bad harvest years without compromising the liquid. That’s very different from running a small-batch niche business.
Beyond whisky and gin, what’s in your innovation pipeline — tequila, RTDs, low-alcohol formats?
We already have the full basic range: whisky, rum (white and café), gin and vodka. Tequila and RTDs are actively being scoped. If you want to be a full-portfolio premium company in 2025 and beyond, it’s hard to ignore tequila. The base is still small in India, even at the ultra-luxury end, but the trend is clear. We will participate in tequila in a serious way, not as a token SKU.