Goa-based artisanal flavour spirits company Ochre Spirits are set to expand its footprint across multiple Indian cities in the next fiscal quarter. The brand, whose portfolio includes fruit-flavoured liquor, is also looking to launch a new flavour of rum.
Founded in 2023, the brand currently has a presence in over 200 retail outlets across Goa. By the end of August, Ochre Spirits aims to bring its products to Karnataka’s retail outlets in cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore and parts of Hubli. Other cities include Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon. But before foraying into the domestic markets, the brand intends to export its products to the West Asia and Asian countries like South Korea with a high demand for fruit-flavoured soju.
‘We are looking to expand to the West Asia before we venture into Karnataka,” says John Royerr, founder of Ochre Spirits. “Although we have not officially appointed distributors, we are in the closing stages. This should be finalised in a month or two.
The brand also intends to set up a ‘first-of-its-kind’ experience centre in Goa. The Ochre experience centre is a micro-distillery with a structure similar to that of a microbrewery’s. These ‘tasting rooms’ will help the brand connect with customers whose feedback will be used to iterate the products.
“Once we sense a lot of interest in a particular product, we’ll decide to package it and send it out into the market for the larger consumer. Microbreweries are common, but nobody in India is doing something like what we have started in Goa,” Royerr told businessline. The brand intends to establish these experience centres in Bangalore, Mumbai and Gurgaon following its foundation in Sinquerim, Goa following its foundation in Sinquerim, Goa.
FY25 vision
The bootstrapped business is raising three seed rounds of three crore and is holding on to a two-crore commitment they are trying to close by next month. “We are trying to be very careful in this whole process. This is a very cash-intensive business, but because we are not expanding to multiple States simultaneously, we want to build our sales and organically increase our valuation.”
With expectations of a negative EBITDA of 18-19 per cent by FY25, Ochre Spirits is aiming for positive returns by FY27. Its current growth rate is 35 per cent month-on-month.
Ochre Spirit’s product portfolio ranges across Peach and Cherry Vodka, Berry Vodka, Apricot and Plum Vodka, Saffron Gin, Rose and Raspberry Gin, Kiwi and Peach Gin and two rum variants. The brand, whose products are made with real fruits, is set to release citrus-flavoured rum sometime in July. By next year, around 18-20 categories of spirits will be released, including whiskey.
The products are priced between ₹1,450 and ₹1,275, with some categories to be sold for less than ₹1,000. “We are not assigning super-premium pricing. We want our spirits to be affordable so a lot more people can access it,” said the founder.
