Pakistan brewery ‘to give Indian beers a run for their money’
By ANIThursday, January 6, 2011
LONDON - Pakistan’s colonial era brewery has stepped up to challenge the dominance of India beer brands in Britain.
Isphanyar Bhandara, the company’s chief executive, said the firm hoped to start distributing to restaurants across the UK in the next two to three months.
“I am looking at this project not from the financial point of view,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.
“I would like to get this very famous name - it is, after all, a British legacy - on to the streets of the UK. My aim would be to put it in the ethnic restaurants and give the Indian beers, which totally suck, a run for their money,” he added.
Set up in 1960, the brewery was located near Murree, a hill station nestled 6,000ft above sea level where British officers would seek respite from the brutal summer heat. But later it moved to Rawalpindi.
However, the Partition saw business shrinking because of a Muslim population, for which alcohol intake is considered a sin.
Murree’s brewery and distillery is tucked away behind the soft drinks division.
“The future looks very dangerous for this country,” said Bhandara, who is teetotal even though, as a Parsee, he is allowed to drink.
“Putting a definite future on liquor is very difficult.” (ANI)
