Cobra keen to leave the curry house

Cobra, the beer owned by Asian manufacturing and branding star Lord Bilimoria, is launching a £14m advertising campaign aimed at turning the niche brew into one of Britain's top ten lagers.

Adrian McKeon, the new chief executive, said the TV and print campaign, which will start in the summer, would put the independent company in the same marketing spending bracket as the country's leading brewers.

The move comes alongside talks about distribution deals with 20,000 independent pub companies as well as a tie-up with another major pub group to expand Cobra's reach outside the restaurant industry. The company already has a deal with Wetherspoons.

'Just under half of all men in the UK have had Indian food in the past four weeks and in that market we have 97% penetration,' said McKeon. 'We need to persuade those men in the 28 to 33 age group that it is OK to drink Cobra even when not in an Indian restaurant.'

Bilimoria, 46, is the son of an Indian army general and entered the House of Lords last year as a crossbencher. But his rise to fame began 18 years ago when he spotted that the UK was falling in love with curry.

He borrowed £20,000 and launched his beer brand, going door-to-door persuading restaurants to stock it. Sales of Cobra now top £43m a year.

Source : This Is Money