London Pilsner

United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL), also called UB Group, is an Indian conglomerate
headquartered in UB City, Bangalore, Karnataka. Its core business includes beverages and investments in various sectors. The company markets beer under the Kingfisher brand, and owns various other brands of alcoholic beverages. United Breweries is India's largest producer of beer.

United Breweries now has greater than a 40% share of the Indian brewing market with 79 distilleries and bottling units around the world. In 2005, UB financed a takeover of the spirits business of the rival Shaw-Wallace in the United States.

History

The UB Group was founded by a Scotsman, Thomas Leishman, in 1915, when he brought together Castle Brewery and Nilgiris Breweries (1857), Bangalore Brewing Co. (1885), British Brewing Corp. (1903) and BBB Brewery Co. Ltd. (1913). The Group took its initial lessons in manufacturing beer from South India based British Breweries.
At the age of 22, Vittal Mallya was elected as the company's first Indian director in 1947. After a year, he replaced R. G. N. Price as the chairman of the company.

United Breweries made its initial impact by manufacturing bulk beer for the British troops before independence, which was transported in huge barrels or "Hogsheads". Kingfisher, the group's most visible and profitable brand, made a modest entry in the sixties. During the 1950s and 60s, the company expanded greatly by acquiring other breweries. First was the addition of McDowell as one of the Group subsidiaries, a move which helped United Breweries to extend its portfolio to wines and spirits business. Strategically, the Group moved into agro-based industries and medicines when Mallya acquire
Kissan
Products and formed a long-term relationship with Hoechst AG of Germany to create the Indian pharmaceutical company now known as Aventis Pharma, the Indian subsidiary of the global pharma major Sanofi-Aventis.

UB Group has had some relationship with United Spirits Limited, which is now majority-owned (54.8%) by Diageo.

The conglomerate was headed by Vijay Mallya, who left India on 2 March 2016, allegedly to escape legal action by Indian banks to whom he owed an estimated in loans. In June 2021, Heineken N.V. bought out Mallya's 15% stake in United Breweries Limited for from the Debt Recovery Tribunal. With this, Heineken's stake in the company increased to 61.5%.

The logo

The Pegasus, which is the symbol of the United Breweries, first found its place as the Group logo in 1941. Then, the Helladic horse – associated with beer and nectar in Greek mythology – carried a beer cask between the wings, ostensibly because beer formed the core operations of the Group. Later, the beer cask was removed to represent the Group's multifaceted operations.

Subsidiaries

*United Breweries Limited – the UB Group's brewing entity, which has undisputed market leadership with a national market share in excess of 50%. The UB Group today controls 60% of the total manufacturing capacity for beer in India. United Breweries is controlled by Heineken N.V. which owns a majority stake in the company.
*UB Engineering – the group's engineering business arm. It undertakes engineering, procurement and construction projects, infrastructure, on-site fabrication of structures, installation, testing and commissioning of electrical and mechanical equipment, piping for large industrial projects. The company was initially established as Western India Erectors in 1963 and came under the UB Group in 1988.
*UBICS – providing IT consulting, body shopping services and professional IT products to business companies.

Defunct subsidiaries

*Kingfisher Airlines – UB Group launched Kingfisher Airlines, an airline in India whose operation was halted after problems in 2014 that led to its licence being revoked by the DGCA.

See also

* United Spirits
* Kingfisher Airlines

References

External links

*

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Beer in India
Multinational breweries
British companies established in 1857
Food and drink companies established in 1857
1857 establishments in British India
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange
Indian companies established in 1857
Indian companies established in 1915
United Breweries Group