Groupe Soufflet, with an annual malting production capacity of 2,145 million metric tons one of the world’s largest malting companies, enters the Indian market by buying Alwar malthouse. The malthouse is located about 150 kilometers south-west of New Delhi in the state of Rajasthan. The Alwar malthouse was built in 2012 and has an annual capacity of 18,000 metric tons of malt. Soufflet has alreadybeen producing malt at Alwar under a contract malting agreement for the last two years.
It is the first step of Jean-Michel Soufflet, chairman of Soufflet’s executive board, and his malting unit director Christophe Passelande into the Asian beer market and the first foray of a foreign maltster into India.
The underdeveloped Indian beer market has still a huge potential with a per capita consumption of only 2 liters of beer per year. So far foreign maltsters were very reluctant to enter the market, because India is fragmented with differing laws and taxes in the several states. Some states even prohibit the production and consumption of alcohol at all. Nevertheless, Soufflet is looking for further acquisitions or building own malthouses in India not only focused on the beer industry but also in view of the considerable domestic whisky production.
