Chennai: Tamil Nadu govt’s decision to give equal sales opportunities to liquor from all breweries and distilleries is a strain on Tasmac outlets, as many shops are running out of storage and refrigeration capacity due to arrival of new liquor brands to their shelves.Last week, the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) directed outlets to display products from all breweries and distilleries equally on their racks. Tamil Nadu has six breweries for beer, seven distilleries for brandy and six for rum. The six breweries together market nearly 30 varieties of beer in different bottle and can sizes. A slew of imported liquor too arrive from other states and country.Earlier, Tasmac allocated shelf space based on average sales performance of each manufacturer. The new order has required all brands to be stocked and displayed, leaving most Tasmac and Elite outlets with many operating from just 250sqft to 500sqft premises, struggling to accommodate the growing number of liquor cartons.At an Elite outlet on Anna Nagar’s Second Avenue, fresh consignments were stacked in the customer display area, with three layers of cartons piled one above another. Some pint bottles had been tucked beneath the billing counter because of the lack of space. “We don’t have room,” a vendor said.The situation was similar at Tasmac outlets on Nelson Manickam Road in Aminjikarai, Church Road in Mogappair and GN Chetty Road in T Nagar, where several beer varieties were kept outside refrigeration because of limited cooling capacity.Elite outlets are equipped with five 300-litre refrigerators, of which three are generally reserved for local brands and two for imported liquor. At Elite shops in Anna Nagar’s Shanthi Colony, Second Avenue and T Nagar, all five refrigerators were filled to capacity. “Only about six or seven varieties can be stored equally at one time. We don’t have space for the rest. The shops will have to be expanded if every brand has to be kept under cold storage,” a staff member said.Tasmac has not increased procurement of locally manufactured liquor but has redistributed existing procurement across brands. “However, more imported liquor brands are arriving and there are space constraints to accommodate them,” a Tasmac official said. The corporation plans to review sales by the end of August and reallocate weightage based on the monthly average.A prohibition and excise department official said the elite shops, wherever possible, shall be expanded. “With local shops, we will try to expand them to 500sqft if there are adjacent land,” the officiail said.
