India

Geschichte

Mohan Meakin traces back to 1855, when Edward Dyer from the UK set up the first-ever brewery in India in Kasauli. He set up more breweries at Solan, Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi and Mandalay. Another entrepreneur H.G. Meakin came to India from Britain and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee. After the first World War the two firms merged and formed Dyer Meakin & Company. In 1935, when Burma was separated from India the company was reconstructed with its Indian assets under the name and style of Dyer Meakin Breweries Ltd. In 1949, N.N. Mohan took over the management of the company. Under his stewardship, the company's assets and profits registered a manifold increase.

To mark the contribution of Mohan, the company's name was changed from Dyer Meakin Breweries to Mohan Meakin Brewries in 1967. On the death of N.N. Mohan in 1969, his eldest son V.R. Mohan took over as managing director. He introduced a number of new products that are brand leaders even today. In the seventies the manufacturing activities of the company were diversified into other fields under the leadership of Brigadier Kapil Mohan, who became the managing director of the company in 1973. Subsequently the word brewery was dropped in 1982 to remove the impression that the company was engaged only in beer making.

Although Mohan started with brewing, the Kasauli brewery was later shifted to Solan where water of good quality was available from natural springs. A distillery was set up at Kasauli instead. Another distillery was set up in the historic city of Lucknow. In addition, to meet the increased demand for Mohan Meakin products, an industrial complex was set up in 1960 in Ghaziabad, near Delhi.

In recent times, however, the going has not been very smooth for the company. According to a report in Business Standard (Mohan Meakin on the rocks), the nineties have not been kind to Mohan Meakin. Says the report: 'They flourished as long as there was no competition. UB and Shaw Wallace have been moving fast to make inroads into the market.'

Mohan Meakin's principal brands are Old Monk rum and Golden Eagle beer. Its other products include Diplomat Deluxe, Colonel's Special, Summer Hall and Solan No 1 whiskies, London Dry and Big Ben gins, and Kempanski vodka.

On another front, the company's joint venture with Glen Morangie -- McDonald Meakin -- has made limited headway with its whiskeys Highland Queen and Grand Reserve. Mohan Meakin is also believed to be talking to talking to international majors for a possible equity tie-up.