East is feast

Asian beers are finally moving out of restaurants and into pubs.

We are a nation of curry addicts. Whether at home, at the local curry house or pub, more than a quarter of Brits eat a curry at least once a week while almost 50 per cent go Indian every fortnight.

Since 1980, the number of Indian restaurants in the UK has soared from 3,000 to more than 8,500 and the British love affair with all things hot and spicy has seen traditional British fayre, such as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, replaced by chicken tikka masala as the nation's favourite dish.

It's even recently been given the thumbs up by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook who said in a speech extolling the virtues of a multi-racial Britain, "chicken tikka masala is now Britain's true national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences".

Whatever the social significance of a chicken tikka masala, one thing is for sure - the rising popularity of the "Ruby Murray" has precipitated a meteoric rise for the major Indian lager brands, Cobra and Kingfisher, who reported sales of more than £20m last year.

Ten years ago, Cobra Beer was nothing more than a pipedream for Indian-born entrepreneur Karan Bilimoria who created the brand after identifying the need for a challenger to the omnipresent Kingfisher.

Having started the business selling bottles of Cobra from his London flat and out the back of his Citroen 2CV, Karan succeeded in getting Cobra into two thirds of Britain's 6,500 licensed Indian restaurants, predominantly in bottles, and more recently announced plans to float the company in the latter half of next year.

Volumes of Cobra have quadrupled during the last three years and the brand has grown by 60 per cent year-on-year.

However, with more than 90 per cent of Indian restaurants stocking an Indian-branded beer, Karan has bigger fish (or should that be poppadoms?) to fry and is looking to expand beyond the flocked wallpapered surroundings of the curry house into the nation's pubs and bars and has already achieved a listing in the Yates's Wine Lodge pub chain.

"As a beer brand, we are extremely fortunate to have such an enormous customer base and as far as I'm concerned, Indian restaurants will always be our focal point," added Karan.

"However, there's no reason why Cobra can't be sold in pubs, bars and clubs and other mainstream outlets.

"Everyone eats curry in this country, everyone goes to Indian restaurants and everyone visits pubs. It's extremely rare nowadays to find a pub food menu that doesn't feature a curry at one point during the week. Another avenue into the pubs is as a guest beer - an increasing number of pubs are holding curry promotions and curry nights."

A high-profile marketing drive, centred around the slightly laddish "Curryholic Dave" advertising campaign, is to spearhead Cobra's growth into the mass market, and the brand has lent its name to a number of events including the National 5-A-Side Football Championships in an attempt to promote itself more as a national brand and less as a mere curry complement.

"It's a very drinkable beer in its own right," said Karan. "It's extremely smooth and less gassy than the mainstream brands and people find that it doesn't bloat them with or without food, allowing them to drink it throughout an evening."

Although Cobra is available in a 330ml bottle, the majority of outlets have opted for the more substantial 660ml size, which is designed for sharing in a similar way to wine.

"It's the authentic way of drinking beer in India," claimed Karan.

"People share a bottle of beer between them and it allows people to drink at their own pace and complements Indian food which is traditionally shared between a group."

Authenticity is something that rival Kingfisher might well take issue with. Despite its meticulous branding, Cobra has never been sold on the sub-continent and is no longer even brewed in India.

Look carefully at the bottle and you will see that it is in fact brewed under licence in Bedfordshire by Charles Wells, which is also contracted to make Red Stripe from Jamaica and Kirin beer from Japan.

For all its righteousness, Kingfisher is itself brewed only a few junctions away on the M25 by Shepherd Neame in Faversham, Kent, yet can legitimately boast genuine Indian heritage.

It is the flagship brand of Bangalore-based United Breweries of India, currently commands a 25 per cent share of the Indian beer market and exports to more than 30 different countries.

"We are the only Indian beer available that is also currently on sale in India," said Brian Dozey, Kingfisher's marketing director at UBSN.

Kingfisher has recently announced the launch of the inaugural Kingfisher World Curry Week in conjunction with the charity Action Against Hunger. Staged from October 21 to October 27, the event will include a national currybus tour, a "curryoake" competition and offer a chance for pubs to feature a dazzling array of Indian dishes as part of their bar menu.

However, although the brand has already obtained listings for its bottled version with JD Wetherspoon as part of the chain's weekly curry nights and a number of outlets in the Shepherd Neame estate, Brian added that Kingfisher's ambitions to expand into the pub market were secondary to its commitment to Indian restaurants, and would only be fulfilled if the situation and price was right.

"We still have a lot of work to do in restaurants and our priority is to increase our overall share in our principal sector. Reciprocal deals mean that it's very difficult to enter the market other than as a guest beer and even then, the profit margins are pretty measly," added Brian.

Another Asian beer brewed under licence by Shepherd Neame is Sun Lik, a Chinese beer taken on three years ago and designed specifically for the increasingly popular Chinese restaurant market. Although it has already gained approximately 300 instillations, progress has been slower than expected.

Adrian Linforth, national sales manager at Shepherd Neame, said: "It's a very different marketplace and the cultural barriers were greater than we had first anticipated.

"Initially we had to persuade people of its brand origins and its genuine pedigree and it often took four to five visits before we struck a deal. But once established, the customer base is very solid and extremely loyal."

So why is Britain's oldest brewer interested in entering an unreceptive Chinese restaurant market? "It's important that Shepherd Neame tries to identify growing niche markets where we can have a major impact," said Adrian. "It gives us an opportunity to compete with major international players on an equal footing since the national brewers simply aren't interested."

Although it's very early days for Sun Lik, Adrian hopes that the recent increase in oriental-style dishes being served in pubs will facilitate Sun Lik's eventual transition from the restaurant to the pub.

One brand to successfully cross over the barrier between the two sectors is Tiger beer from Singapore. Originally launched through the restaurant sector, Tiger has gained quite a following in the style bar sector and a 2001 £1m marketing budget targeting leading magazines such as GQ and Arena should ensure a rosy future for the brand and prove to other Asian beers that the gap between the restaurant and the increasingly receptive mainstream pub market is not an unbridgeable one.

To register your pub for Kingfisher World Curry Week simply register on the official website: www.kingfisherworldcurryweek.com