Smirnoff Ice enters India as United Spirits bets on ready-to-drink market

Summary

The company has introduced two variants - Smirnoff Ice and Smirnoff Ice Max - with alcohol by volume (ABV) of 4% and 8%, respectively, in flavours including Jamun, Cranberry and Citrus. To begin with, the company has started sales in Goa, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

United Spirits Ltd (USL) has launched Smirnoff Ice in India, marking the vodka brand's entry into the ready-to-drink (RTD) segment as it bets on the category to drive its next phase of growth.

The company has introduced two variants - Smirnoff Ice and Smirnoff Ice Max - with alcohol by volume (ABV) of 4% and 8%, respectively, in flavours including Jamun, Cranberry and Citrus, its chief marketing officer Ruchira Jaitly said. To begin with, the company has started sales in Goa, Bengaluru and Mumbai, with plans to expand to other markets ahead of the festive season.

The launch comes as Smirnoff sales in India accelerate, with net sales value (NSV) reaching nearly ₹250 crore in the first quarter of FY27, after the vodka brand recorded about ₹350 crore in sales in the entire FY26. Broadly, net sales value represents a liquor company's actual revenue after deducting discounts, product returns, and duties. India is now the vodka brand's fifth largest market.

USL - the Indian subsidiary of British alcoholic beverage maker Diageo - now expects more new drinkers to enter the market as India's young demographic expands, while existing consumers increasingly move beyond a single category or format as the choice expands.

Jaitly told Mint that younger legal-drinking-age consumers are "not necessarily drinking more or less alcohol in a straightforward way". Instead, they are experimenting with different drinks for different occasions.

"I do not think that the narrative is as simple as people are drinking less. It's more that people are choosing from a wider repertoire," she said.

India's RTD market

Mint reported this week that India sold about 5.3 million nine-litre cases of RTDs in 2025, with strong RTDs - those with higher alcohol content - dominating the business. While this was still a fraction of the 410 million beer cases sold during the year, the category is growing faster than its small base suggests.

RTD consumption in India crossed $200 million in value in 2025, up 11% from a year earlier, according to international drinks consultancy IWSR's data accessed by Mint. Between 2022 and 2025, the market grew at a 6% compounded annual rate, compared with 3% globally. In the US, the world's largest RTD market accounting for about 40% of global volumes, RTD volumes fell 1% in 2025.

But India's RTD market is evolving differently from more mature overseas markets. While lower-alcohol products such as hard seltzers have driven growth in several developed markets, Indian consumers have shown a preference for strong, flavour-led products with higher alcohol content. Some popular RTDs in India contain about 15% alcohol by volume, compared with roughly 3-4% for many global products.

This could explain why USL is launching two versions of Smirnoff Ice in India. Jaitly said both strengths have a role to play, given that consumer preferences in India differ from those in some other markets.

Smirnoff's growth

Jaitly said the opportunity is not simply to get existing Smirnoff drinkers to consume more of the brand, but to make it relevant to more occasions. "There's no doubt that consumers will drink better. And that's the type of consumer and category that we want to grow," she added.

United Spirits did not give a sales target for Smirnoff Ice. Jaitly said the initial response in Goa had been "very good" and that the company would learn more as it expands to other markets.

Meanwhile, Smirnoff's growth has been driven largely by Minty Jamun and Minty Mango, along with Green Apple, Orange and Zesty Lime variants. Jaitly said the Jamun and Mango flavours have performed particularly well. The company has also seen strong consumer response to flavoured vodka in markets such as Uttar Pradesh, where the category has traditionally had a large presence.

The net sales value of USL's "prestige & above" business rose 10% to ₹2,478 crore in the April-June period of FY27. The company said the growth was driven in part by Smirnoff's local flavour innovation like the launch of Minty Jamun, along with broad-based growth across the portfolio.

"Smirnoff is picking up and therefore that's beefing up that growth algorithm," United Spirits' managing director and chief executive officer Praveen Someshwar had said on the company's Q1 earnings call at the end of July.