We are working hard to have Delhi license renewed in coming weeks and months: Pernod Ricard CFO Helene de Tissot

Pernod Ricard, the world's second biggest spirits firm, said it is working hard to have its licence renewed in the coming months after the Delhi Government rejected its licence in the city, after investigating agencies named them in a case over alleged corruption and cartelisation linked to Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy.

"The license has been suspended since early September. We have outperformed despite that suspension. We are obviously working hard to have this license renewed in the coming weeks and months," Pernod Ricard chief financial officer Helene de Tissot told analysts, adding that Delhi accounts for about 5% of its Indian unit sales.

Earlier this year, the ED alleged that the Indian unit of Pernod Ricard indulged in retail cartelisation, money laundering and wrongful declaration of prices. ED's charge-sheet said Pernod Ricard, while taking approval on corporate guarantee, wrote to Tissot, claiming it was working towards creating conditions to have strategic advantage in 20 out of the 32 proposed zones in Delhi, as part of its “winning Delhi by distance” ambition.

After taking the role in January this year, Pernod Ricard India managing director for India Paul-Robert Bouhier resigned from his position recently.

The distiller that sells Royal Salute, Glenlivet and Absolut counts India among one of its three “must-win” countries globally, along with the US and China. The growing middle class, which can afford premium-and-above, is about 150 million, and nearly 17 million people will be added as they attain the legal drinking age annually for the next three to five years.

"We have been increasing prices to the highest level versus the recent past in India. All the fundamentals are very strong in terms of consumer confidence, in terms of demographics, in terms of the organization, and then we have very strong brand equity that we have been building over the past 20 years. So we are very ambitious for India in the short and mid long-term," Tissot added.

It gets a significant chunk from premium and semi-premium brands, mainly Blenders Pride, Royal Stag and Imperial Blue, and controls about a fourth of the overall whiskey market in India.