Liquor market shrinks 5 per cent in April, as an effect of liquor ban

India’s liquor barons got hit by the judicial ban on liquor sales on highways as the country’s liquor market shrank by 5 per cent in a month, after the liquor ban was imposed in the month of April 2017.  

The ban advocated by the Supreme Court on the sale of alcohol near state and national highways, reflected in the winding up of one-third of the total liquor vendors in the economy, resulting in a drop in demand for whisky, brandy, rum, vodka and gin.

The liquor industry’s sales dropped from 24.69 million to 23.47 million in April 2017 with the most amount of decline in the sale of mass products and the price sensitive products. The industry had witnessed a reduction of 2.2 per cent in the liquor sales in the previous fiscal year 2017.   

Post the announcement of the apex court’s judgement regarding the ban, the companies had started de-stocking their channels, thereof affecting the January-March sales.  
 
However, the impact of the ban is likely to wear off for the retail outlets as the outlets relocate away from highways, along with the state governments declassifying highways.