Ajay Shetty, Founder-Director, Salud Beverages: India is now the fifth largest Gin consumer

Salud Beverages has entered the beverage landscape of India with its first offering G&T 2.0, the country’s first ready-to-drink Gin & Tonic. Ajay Shetty, an ex-investment banker, and successful wine entrepreneur is the Founder – Director of the company, which has received funding from actor Rana Daggubati. In this exclusive interview with Steena Joy, Shetty, talks about the G&T market in India and future plans for the brand

What was the inspiration behind setting up Salud Beverages?

Being in the industry for over a decade, I noticed a gap and opportunity in the alcobev market-specifically in the ready-to-drink segment. That’s when the whole idea of Salud Beverages came to be and a global lifestyle brand is something that I have always wanted to create. This ultimately led to the idea of Salud being born, with India’s first RTD Gin and Tonic. My team and I got together to ideate the product and ultimately landed on the idea of an urban lifestyle brand. While the G&T 2.0 with its easy-to-drink, carefree nature will be the flagship, the soul of the brand is to create a change in the way people party, by sharing the experience of Life 2.0.

Your insights on the market size for Gin in India, Consumer behaviour, and their interest in Gin products.

There has been a shift of drink preference from hard liquor to clear spirits like gin, and India is now the fifth largest Gin consumer. India having a hot climate, consumers would pick cold Gin and Tonics over whiskey on the rocks. After studying the demand and consumption of Gin in general, the need for a product like this now exists. Our idea is to change the way people perceive the beverage, and make it an easy-to-drink option for anybody and everybody. To change the way one unwinds on a regular basis.

How do you plan to reach out to your target audience with G&T 2.0?

Salud is a new age brand that’s all about unwinding, relaxing and creating a new way to chill with a refreshing drink! Given the current generation and times, social media is definitely the way to reach out and engage with our core market and hence digital is our go-to medium, but it also goes further than that. Our ancillaries – like the recently launched Salud Merchandise and Salud Sessions – add to our platform of Life 2.0, bringing people together to celebrate life the Salud way.

With the pandemic changing many things including how people party and consume beverages, its impact on the overall business?

There has been a lot to learn as the world has changed in the pandemic. Given how drastically the alcobev industry has changed during this time, the main challenge was, of course, building a brand through Covid. We constantly reworked the business prototypes to ensure there were no roadblocks in our path. Our story, however, has just begun and we as a team, having done this already with the launch and sale of the previous brand, are confident and well equipped to handle this and change the game. As a brand, we are more of a “celebrating life” beverage than a “party” beverage. It could either be a way of unwinding at home with some peaceful me-time, or even enjoying a virtual drink with friends and family. The focus here isn’t about partying as such- it’s more about bonding and forming meaningful social connections – something that has gained huge importance in the last year.

Future roadmap for the brand?

We have big plans for the future! G&T 2.0 is just the start. We are an urban lifestyle brand with our own exclusive fashion and lifestyle merchandise, as well as our music label Salud Sessions. We’re aiming to be a global niche brand with non-alcoholic RTDs and potential mixers, RTDs (like G&T 2.0) and craft beer or craft spirits. Looking at the immediate future, we will be taking Salud G&T 2.0 pan India, and foraying into international markets as well – beginning with the UK, the UAE and Sri Lanka.