Consumer brand casebook · Goa, est. 2017 · 2026 · 18 pages
Maka Di
How a Goan craft brewery built a beer company in the one market the government runs.
3 L vs 70 L
Beer per person per year, India vs the Czech Republic. The lowest consumption on earth is not a ceiling — it is the runway.
The thesis
India barely drinks beer, taxes it harder than spirits, and lets state governments run the market — and that is exactly the opportunity. Latambarcem spent three years building the plant and the R&D before a single bottle sold in 2020. The moat was poured in concrete before it was poured in glass.
Inside the deck
- 01
Beer is four ingredients and one fragile step
Malt, hops, yeast, water — and a packaging problem, because beer is exquisitely sensitive to oxygen: under 30 parts per billion in the bottle. Easy to make, brutally hard to keep.
- 02
Eight beers map one ladder
A ₹79 Goan rice lager drives volume, a ₹99 shandy is the gateway, the ₹110 Belgian Blanche is the best-seller, and a ₹160 Belgian Tripel carries the medals. Every SKU buys credibility for the next one up.
- 03
Super Maka: the 15 % loophole
Indian law caps beer at 8 % ABV — go above and you're legally wine, taxed on a friendlier ladder (₹40/L vs ₹60/L in Goa). One bottle delivers what four mass lagers do, at roughly 30 % EBITDA while mass lager sells at a loss.
- 04
Goa is a manufacturing advantage, not a vibe
The cheapest brewing license in India (~₹25 lakh vs ₹17 lakh per label economics elsewhere), low-TDS groundwater for a product that is 90 % water, 12 hours to Bombay port, one plant equidistant from Bangalore, Bombay and Hyderabad.
The moat was poured in concrete before it was poured in glass.
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