USL is # 2 spirits maker in the world

Vijay Mallya-led UB Group said it has become the world’s secondlargest liquor maker after Diageo with sales of over 100 million cases in the last 12 months and is certain to be the number one by next fiscal. In the process, group firm United Spirits has overtaken France’s Pernod Ricard, Mr Mallya told reporters here, adding the company has set its eyes on the number one spot. “We are now clearly the second-largest spirits company in the world and we have outperformed our global competitors,” he said, adding the firm has done “extremely well despite the economic slowdown”. United Spirits (USL) sold over 740 million cases of spirits products, in the last 25 years, making a total of 26 billion bottles of alcohol beverages of different pack sizes, he added. “We are certain that our additional sales in the next financial year will take us to the number one position globally,” he said. Mr Mallya said it took USL twelve years to cross the first 100 million cases, another five years for the next 100 million cases and four years for the third 100 million cases. It took three years for the company to cross the fourth, fifth and sixth million cases and “finally we achieved 100 million cases sales in just 12 months”.