United Spirits plans wine bar, lifestyle outlet

United Spirits (USL), the spirits arms of the UB Group, is getting aggressive with its retail play in India. The company plans to open a wine bar in its UB City luxury mall in Bangalore and later a large-format lifestyle outlet that will offer all its spirits and wine brands. More emphasis would be laid on creating the right kind of atmosphere to promote and market the company`s brands. They plan to open a lifestyle retail format with a size of 2,000-4,000 sq. ft that will have five different segments dedicated to spirits and wines, food, accessories and a sports bar. To start with, the wine bar will offer only USL wine brands such as Four Seasons, Zinsi and Bouvet Ladubay in addition to the portfolio of the company`s imported wine brands. The wine bar, which would covering an area of about 750-1,000 sq. ft, will also offer accessories such as wine chiller, wine opener, decanter and a wine tasting room as well. The company is also upgrading and re-branding the World of Spirits retail outlets across India. USL had entered the retail space in 2007 with the World of Spirits outlets and it is now upgrading these with a new look and feel, trained spirits advisors, standard brand displays and more liquor brands. The nine outlets in Bangalore are now being operated under Spiritz & More banner and 16 more will be upgraded and re-branded over the next one year across 11 cities. Spiritz & More outlets are not owned by USL and the company only provides marketing and store design support with no investments.