Drinks giant, Diageo Plc., are rubbing their hands with anticipation of 50 million potential new consumers in China, India and Southeast Asia each year. For these three markets alone see that amount of youngsters reaching legal drinking age every year.
In an interview with Reuters, Diageo’s Asia Pacific President, Gilbert Ghostine, said that by 2015 they aim for a fifth of the companies worldwide sales to come from these countries.

Currently Diageo has a 30% share of this market, with Pernod Ricard lagging behind at 24%. However, Pernod Ricard’s sales of Martell cognac are particularly strong.
Ghostine believes that sales in this area of the world are only at the tip of the iceberg, and that there is far more to come. Currently whisky and cognac account for around 90% of the market in China with cognac outstripping whisky demand. Cognac sales are currently growing at around 14%, whereas that of whisky is at 3%. But he is confident that it is only a matter of time before whisky returns to the 8% growth seen in 2008 before the global downturn.
Sources: www.in.news.yahoo.com, www.reuters.com