Old Monk won't die, assures manufacturer

MOHAN NAGAR: Putting social media rumours to rest, the senior management at Mohan Meakin Ltd told TOI on Tuesday that its popular rum brand Old Monk is not going to be taken off market. After reports of the spirit's falling sales, #OldMonk has been trending on social media platforms with rumours saying that Mohan Meakin will stop production.

"The figures are misleading. Sales have dropped in a handful of states, mostly in South India, but that doesn't mean that Old Monk is doing badly. Since Sunday, I have been reading on Facebook and Twitter that we are going to stop producing our most popular brand. Our managing director Hemant Mohan was shocked to hear this. I want to put an end to all these rumours and assure you that this is not true. Old Monk is still India's favourite rum and it's not going anywhere," said SN Maingi, deputy general manager, Mohan Meakin.

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According to Maingi, Old Monk would be the company's last product to take a hit if sales go down. "It is our flagship product. Old Monk is the pride of Mohan Meakin. Even if things were to go bad, Old Monk wouldn't be the product to suffer since it is a priority for our organization. Thousands of people, from breweries in Ghaziabad and Himachal Pradesh to our godowns in Dehradun, are involved in the manufacturing of this product. Why would we ever abandon these people?"

He added, "If it was, indeed, doing badly, we would not go ahead with our plans of introducing several variants of the rum. Old Monk is doing well, even without support from advertisement."

Maingi said cartelization in certain parts of the country may be affecting sales a little. "I don't want to delve into internal matters and talk about why sales are dipping but it is true that there are certain states where liquor cartels are being formed. These groups are trying to monopolize markets. For example, one of our top Solan-made whiskey brands isn't able to find this kind of space in Uttar Pradesh's markets."

Launched in 1954, Old Monk was for a long time the largest selling dark rum in the world. It was, for many years, the biggest Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) brand. While Maingi claims the sales of Mohan Meakin's flagship product have not been affected radically, figures show that the rum has seen a 54% decline in sales between 2010 and 2014.

TOI reported on Sunday that Mohan Meakin sold only 3.9 cases of the rum in 2014 and that its sales today are a quarter of what they were in the 1960s. Maingi's assurances, though, come as good news for lovers of the dark rum.