Delhi’s beer shelves are full—but where are the big brands?

Walk into a liquor store in Delhi this summer and you’re more likely to spot Barahsinghe, Druk or Le Chilldoz than a chilled Kingfisher or Budweiser. Several well-known national and global beer brands have all but vanished from the city’s shelves. In their place, lesser-known names—some locally made, others imported from Nepal and Bhutan—are rapidly gaining ground.

This quiet transformation is puzzling consumers, squeezing out long-time market leaders, and sparking concern across India’s beer industry. “Most of the city now has lesser-known brands. Cheaper beer from Bhutan and Nepal is also entering the market, further crowding out familiar names,” said Vinod Giri, director general of the Brewers Association of India (BAI), which represents firms like Heineken, AB InBev and United Breweries.

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To be sure, Delhi’s case is similar to that of states like Tamil Nadu, where government-run liquor stores dominate, distorting the market and pushing established beer brands to the sidelines.

What’s driving the shift

The disappearance of popular beer brands from Delhi’s shelves is driven by three key factors: margins, market control, and policy paralysis.

First, imported beer from Bhutan and Nepal—exempt from customs duties under Indian trade policy—is far cheaper for stores to stock. Delhi doesn’t levy countervailing duties like most other states and even charges lower excise on these imports. The result? Bhutanese beers enjoy a ₹20 per bottle cost advantage, while retailers earn an additional ₹5 in margins—giving them a strong incentive to prioritise such products.

Second, the number of liquor stores in Delhi has halved. The city now has just 380 state-run outlets, down from 565 before the 2022 policy reversal that shut private stores. With fewer vends and limited shelf space, smaller brands that offer higher margins are muscling out established names.

Finally, there’s been no coherent policy since 2022. The current excise regime is being run on ad hoc decisions, creating uncertainty, experts said.

A policy gone flat

The roots of this distortion lie in Delhi’s abrupt U-turn on alcohol retail policy.

After briefly opening up liquor retail to private players under its 2021–22 excise policy, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government scrapped the framework in mid-2022 amid allegations of corruption and a CBI probe.

By September that year, the capital reverted to its old regime, with sales handled exclusively by four state-run corporations—Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC), Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation (DSCSC), and Delhi Consumer’s Cooperative Wholesale Store (DCCWS).

Private players remain barred from operating retail outlets.

Even after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed administrative control of Delhi, no new policy was introduced. The market has since been operating in a regulatory vacuum.

What the numbers say

Before the policy reversal in 2022, Delhi’s beer market sold about 12.5 million cases annually. Kingfisher alone accounted for over 80% of those sales, according to BAI. Today, Kingfisher is barely visible in retail outlets.

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According to data from the Delhi excise department, national beer brands grew just 11% between FY24 and the first half of FY25. In contrast, regional Indian brands surged 140%, while imports from Bhutan and Nepal shot up 217% (annualized).

“Brand pushing is a core issue with the Delhi market and Tamil Nadu where the states control the business of alcohol through their own entities,” Giri of the Brewers Association of India said.

Despite a projected rise in Delhi’s overall beer market from 8.4 million cases in FY24 to 10.4 million in FY25, most of that growth is being captured by these lesser-known players.

Compare that with national trends: across India, beer sales rose from 400 million cases in FY23 to 430 million in FY25. National brands still command an 86% share of the market, while regional and imported beers account for only 13% and 17%, respectively.

The missing brands

Major names like Kingfisher, Budweiser, Heineken, and Carlsberg are largely missing from Delhi stores—though some show up in select bars or restaurants. Excise department records accessed by Mint show these being replaced by brands such as Arna, Miamy, Pazap, Serja, and Awitman.

Mint contacted AB InBev and United Breweries for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

Industry executives say that even when demand exists, government-run vends are simply not ordering their products. “Sales are down to just 1–2% of what we saw in 2022,” said the sales head of a leading beer company on condition of anonymity. “The vends are either chasing higher margins or are incentivised in other ways. Either way, they’re not stocking us.”

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Delhi residents are also adjusting. Many are now driving to nearby Gurgaon or Noida to stock up on their preferred brands.

“Since the policy changed over, I can seldom find any good beers in Delhi. Most of the time at the vends, there are unknown and unheard-of brands. Occasionally I find Bira or Corona cans, never a Kingfisher—but it’s always a guessing game,” said Dhruv Kapoor, 37, a corporate professional living in South Delhi and working in Gurugram. “I, including a lot of people I know, am now picking up beer in cases from Gurgaon.”

Another 38-year-old South Delhi resident said she is only able to find Druk beer in nearby shops and nothing else—which has discouraged her from buying beer altogether.

The national ripple effect

Delhi isn’t the only market where beer shelves are being reshuffled.

Tamil Nadu’s state-run TASMAC stores also suffer from similar shortages of global brands, with only United Breweries managing to maintain a presence via a local franchise. Budweiser and Carlsberg are notably absent.

“Corporation-run markets like Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh tend to distort the competitive field. Some like Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand have reformed. Others haven’t,” Giri noted.

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He added that India’s major beer producers, including multinationals with massive local investments, are bearing the brunt. 

“These firms follow strict quality controls and have built high-end breweries to support ‘Make in India’,” he said. “But the imported alternatives, often of questionable quality, face no such oversight. Industry insiders fear this disparity could eventually push more companies to relocate production to countries like Bhutan and Nepal.”