McDowell's No.1 is an Indian brand of spirits manufactured by United Spirits Limited (USL), a subsidiary of

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

. It is USL's flagship brand and the largest umbrella spirits brand in the world, comprising three categories –

whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured ...

and

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...

(under the name McDowell's No.1 Celebration). The brand also has

bottled water Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., Water well, well water, distilled water, Reverse osmosis, reverse osmosis water, mineral water, or Spring (hydrology), spring water) packaged in Plastic bottle, plastic or Glass bottle, glass water bott ...

and soda. The brand began with the launch of McDowell's No.1 Brandy in 1963–64. The brand's slogan is ''No1 Yaari Ka No1 Spirit''.

Origin of name

The name McDowell came from Scottish distiller Angus McDowell, who established McDowell and Company in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 1898, an overseas branch of McDowell of Scotland. In 1951, McDowell and Company was acquired by the UB Group of Vittal Mallya.

History

In 1959, Mallya established McDowell and Company's first distillery at

Cherthala Cherthala is a municipality in the Alappuzha district of Kerala, India and acts as a satellite town of Kochi. It is located north of the district headquarters in Alappuzha and about north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 20 ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, and began bottling Bisquit Brandy and Dorville French Brandy from imported

concentrate A concentrate is a form of Chemical substance, substance that has had the majority of its diluting agent or diluent (in the case of a liquid: the solvent) removed, such that the substance becomes the majority of the composition. Typically, this w ...

s. The company commissioned India's first

distillation Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

plant at Cherthala in 1961 to produce extra neutral alcohol (ENA). The McDowell's No.1 brand began with the launch of McDowell's No.1 Brandy in 1963-64 following the termination of the import contract for No.1 Bisquit Brandy. McDowell's No.1 Whisky was launched in 1968 and McDowell's No.1 Rum was launched in Celebration (dark) and Caribbean (white) variants in 1990-91. The company was incorporated in 1999 as McDowell Spirits Ltd and changed its name from McDowell Spirits Ltd to McDowell and Company Ltd on 1 April 2000. The company changed its name again, to the current United Spirits Limited (USL), on 17 October 2006. In 2000, Claessens International, a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based design consulting firm, was hired to revamp the design and packaging of the series.

Whisky

McDowell's No.1 Reserve Whisky was launched in 1968 and is a blend of imported scotch and Indian malt whiskies. It is sold in several regions outside

, including

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Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

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, the

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, and the

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. McDowell's No.1 Diet Mate, which the company claims is the world's first diet whisky, is a variant of McDowell's No.1 Whisky. It was launched in 2006. It is sold in pint, nip, quart, and 750 ml bottles, at a cost 5% higher than McDowell's No.1 Whisky. The product was initially launched in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

and

Thane Thane (; previously known as Thana, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city located on the northwestern side of the list of Indian states, state of Maharashtra in India and on ...

but later expanded to other markets. Debashish Shyam, then General Manager (Marketing) of UB Group Spirits Division, stated that "Diet Mate is not a low-calorie whisky but has ingredients that increase metabolism."

Rum

McDowell's No.1 Rum was launched in Celebration (dark) and Caribbean (white) variants in 1990-91. It is sold in 13 countries. In 2015, it overtook Bacardi as the world's best-selling rum brand.

Brandy

McDowell's No.1 Brandy was launched in 1963-64 and was the first McDowell's No.1 branded product. The brand created the template for the many No. 1 brands that the company would launch later. It is the largest selling brandy in the world by volume. It sold 4.6 million cases in 2004 and 13.7 million cases in 2009.

Sales

McDowell's No.1 is the largest selling umbrella spirits brand in the world. It sold over 13.5 million cases in 2003-04, 6.07 million cases in 2005 and 8.65 million cases in 2006. It had sales of 27.5 million cases in 2007-08, and sold 14.3 million cases of whisky, 13.8 million cases of rum, and 11.7 million of brandy in 2010. The brand achieved retail sales worth $3.8 billion in 2012-13, selling nearly half a billion 750 ml bottles of its whisky, rum and brandy, making the brand the largest

alcoholic beverage Drinks containing alcohol (drug), alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and Distilled beverage, spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered Non-al ...

franchise in India by volume and value. The following table shows the annual sales of McDowell's No.1:

Marketing

McDowell's No.1 is mainly advertised through

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, as well as sports and music events. The brand has associated itself with Bollywood films such as '' Devdas'', ''

Road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

'', '' Kaante'' and ''

Stumped Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

'', through its Mera No 1 Entertainment banner. On 21 August 2009, the brand announced a tie-up with Shillong Lajong F.C., the first team to qualify for the I-League 2009-2010 from North-East India. It signed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to a three-year endorsement deal, worth , for McDowell's No 1 soda. McDowell's No.1 Whisky releases special packs to commemorate

Holi Holi () is a major Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love and Spring.The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) p. 874 "Holi /'həʊli:/ noun a Hindu spring festival ...".Yudit Greenberg, Encyclopedia of Love in World ...

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

and New Year. The brand has sponsored several music concerts in India featuring artists such as

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British musician. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995, and he is the one of the two members who stayed during the band's existence ...

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican label Fonovisa where he released three Spanish albums ''Enrique Iglesias (album), Enrique ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Rajviani, and Rabbi Shergill, Strings, Bombay Vikings, Shibani Kashyap, Abhijeet Sawant, Kailash Kher and

Mika Singh Mika Singh (born 10 June 1977) is an Indian singer, rapper, musician and actor. His songs include "Bas Ek King" (''Singh Is Kinng''), "Mauja Hi Mauja" (''Jab We Met''), "Ibn-e-Batuta" (''Ishqiya''), "Dhanno" (''Housefull (2010 film), Housefull' ...

References

External links

USL official site
(archived 27 July 2013) {{United Spirits Diageo brands United Spirits brands Indian whisky Brandies Rums Indian brands Products introduced in 1963 Products introduced in 1964 Products introduced in 1968 Products introduced in 1990 Products introduced in 1991