United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL), also called UB Group, is the Indian subsidiary of

Heineken N.V. Heineken N.V. (), branded as The Heineken Company is a Dutch multinational brewing company, founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. Heineken owns over 165 breweries in more than 70 countries. It produces 348 international, re ...

. It is headquartered in

UB City UB City is a mixed-use high-rise complex in Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the souther ...

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. 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 Drinks containing alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered non-alcoholic. Many societies have a di ...

. 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 company, giving it a majority share of India's spirits business. The group no longer owns the Mendocino Brewing Company in the United States.

History

The UB Group was founded by a

Scotsman Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (o ...

, 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 Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

from South India-based British Breweries. At 22,

Vittal Mallya Vittal Mallya (8 February 1924 – 13 October 1983) was an Indian industrialist, best known as the former chair of the India-based United Breweries Group. Mallya is the father of Vijay Mallya. Early life and education Vittal Mallya was born i ...

was elected as the company's first Indian director in 1947. After a year, he replaced R. G. N. Price as the company's chairman. 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. The company expanded greatly during the 1950s and 60s by acquiring other breweries. First was the addition of McDowell as one of the Group subsidiaries. This move helped United Breweries to extend its portfolio to the wines and spirits business. As a strategical measure, the Group moved into agro-based industries and medicines. The former is marked by Mallya acquiring Kissan Products. A long-term relationship with

Hoechst AG Hoechst AG () was a German chemicals, later life sciences, company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with Sanofi-Synthélabo, it became a subsidiar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

was also established, resulting in the creation of an Indian pharmaceutical company,

Aventis Pharma Sanofi S.A. is a French multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, France. The corporation was established in 1973 and merged with Synthélabo in 1999 to form Sanofi-Synthélabo. In 2004, Sanofi-Synthélabo merg ...

. (Currently the Indian subsidiary of the global pharmaceuticals major

Sanofi-Aventis Sanofi S.A. is a French multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, France. The corporation was established in 1973 and merged with Synthélabo in 1999 to form Sanofi-Synthélabo. In 2004, Sanofi-Synthélabo merg ...

). UB Group had a relationship with

United Spirits Limited United Spirits Limited is an Indian alcoholic beverages company, and the world's second-largest spirits company by volume. It is a subsidiary of Diageo, and headquartered at UB Tower in Bangalore, Karnataka. USL exports its products to over 37 ...

, now majority-owned (54.8%) by

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

. The conglomerate was headed by

Vijay Mallya Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman and a former politician. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. His last ...

, who left India on 2 March 2016, allegedly to escape legal action by Indian banks to whom he owed an estimated ₹9,000 crore (US$1.1 billion) in loans. In June 2021,

bought out Mallya's 15% stake in United Breweries Limited for ₹5,825 crores (US$730 million) from the Debt Recovery Tribunal. With this, Heineken's stake in the company increased to 61.5%, taking control of United Breweries. In May 2023, employees, terminated from service at the United Breweries factory located near Ranasthalam, Srikakulam on account of reduced orders, staged protest.

The logo

The

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

, which is the symbol of the United Breweries, first found its place as the Group logo in 1941. Then, the Helladic horse – associated with

and

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

in Greek

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

– 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

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 Kingfisher Airlines Limited was an airline group based in India. It was established in 2003 and started its commercial operations in 2005. Through its parent company United Breweries Group, it had a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red. ...

, an airline in India whose operation was halted after problems in 2012 that led to its licence being revoked by the DGCA.

References

External links