Philippe Schaus, chief executive officer of Moët Hennessy, the Wines and Spirits division of LVMH, spoke exclusively to Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani about how the company is doing in the India market, how it’s reimagining experiences for consumers in a post-pandemic world and how India is redefining Asia’s luxury landscape.
Edited excerpts
Where does India currently stand in Moët Hennessy’s global scheme of things? How excited are you about the India market?
India is still a relatively small luxury market barring some exceptions. For instance, for Glenmorangie, our whiskey brand, India is one of our five largest markets. In the other categories, it is a market in which as there is a growth in wealth, people are progressively elevating their needs into living, transportation, travel, and food.
And, as they go up this hierarchy of desires, they will ultimately come into enjoying high quality wines and spirits. We have a nice development period in front of us and that’s why we are investing in this market, that’s why we built a winery with Chandon (in Nashik) in India. And, that’s why we believe in the Indian markets.
You invested in the winery a while ago. What else are you looking at investing in? Where are some of the growth areas that you’re focusing on when it comes to certain brands that you’re seeing particularly with an uptake in India? What do you have your eye on in terms of your investments, market development etc?
Our priorities right now would be continuing to develop Chandon. Chandon came out of the idea to look for the best terroirs in the world to replicate the quality of champagne in other parts of the world and that was an idea of one of the members of the founding family of Moët Chandon.
They went to different parts of the world including Argentina, Brazil, United States and India and that’s why this winery exists today. The whole idea is to make this the most prestigious, the most desirable Indian version of our champagne in France. Then, we have a large portfolio which we have not yet distributed in India. For instance, our Rosé wines or Rosé de Provence wines are highly distributed in India or some of our Spirits like our tequila are only starting to be distributed.
So, we have a lot of potential there in bringing the portfolio into India which we already have in other markets of the world as well. We are not depriving ourselves of looking at opportunities within India but we are always looking at the highest level of quality in every category. There are possible things which will be possible in the next three years in terms of acquisitions or partnerships of what it can be.
There are a lot of interesting homegrown brands that are coming up across segments in the alcohol beverage space. Is there something that has struck you in terms of the brands that are emerging out of India as well that could perhaps add on to your portfolio?
My first reaction to seeing some Indian whiskey brands who are now at a high level and competing with Scottish whisky is a very positive one. This is in the sense that it elevates the consumer’s understanding of and interest for the category. Whiskey drinkers are typically drinking in a repertoire, they like to try out different things and to have a national brand or a couple of national brands to choose from, says Philippe Schaus, CEO of Moët Hennessy. This is in the sense that it elevates the consumer’s understanding of the category and the interest for the category. Whiskey drinkers are typically drinking in a repertoire, they like to try out different things and to have a national brand or a couple of national brands to choose from.
If anything is going to help the category, we are very positive about that. Should we one day be able to partner in some way with one of these brands possibly could be very interesting. So, we keep all our options open.
Let’s dig a little bit into what may perhaps make the Indian luxury consumer different from your consumers in other markets whether it is North America, Europe or places in the Middle East like Dubai for instance. What sets apart the Indian luxury consumer and how India is perhaps reshaping the idea of luxury in Asia for instance.
There are a few characteristics of the Indian luxury consumer. The first one is that India has a very strong luxury culture of its own particularly in the fashion world with the traditional dresses of which there are today very modern versions and developments.
Indians come with their own tradition and culture of luxury based on incredible craftsmanship throughout the country. I could also have mentioned jewellery and that makes it quite different. Secondly, what we see is, Indians acquiring luxury from foreign brands but even more so the Indians travelling and shopping abroad.
We recently opened at Harrods in London. For the first time, Harrods opened a ground floor Champagne Bar in the middle of the beauty section as they wanted to create this energised concept around the Moët & Chandon brand.
Moët & Chandon has this bar and it’s very interesting to observe who the customers are and a large proportion come from India. They go to Harrods and they like to enjoy one of our brands or flagship brands suits. And that says a lot about how we don’t have a bar like that in India but once we open it in Harrods, it works immediately with an Indian consumer.
There are many places where we see a growing number of Indian consumers who shop at our bars , restaurants, boutiques and who like to enjoy, learn, bring back the taste, the culture of high end wines and spirits and other luxury countries back home.
We also have, in a growing way, Indian tourists who visit our wineries in France in the category of champagne. For instance, we have very nice programs for the visit of the wineries where you visit the sellers and you get explanations on the wines and you visit the shadows. We have a growing number of Indian tourists who really come and want to enjoy that, and want to discover this world of magic of winemaking and champagne making.
Watch out for the full interview on Media Dialogues With Storyboard18 on CNBC-TV18.