United Breweries Group or UB Group, based in Bangalore, is a conglomerate of different companies with a major focus on the brewery (beer) and alcoholic beverages industry. The company markets of its beer under the Kingfisher brand and has also launched Kingfisher Airlines, an airline service in India, with international flights operating recently. United Breweries is India's largest producer of be
er with a market share of around 48% by volume. United Breweries now has greater than a 40% share of the Indian brewing market with 79 distilleries and bottling units across the world.. Recently UB financed a takeover of the spirits business of the rival Shaw-Wallace company giving it a majority share of India's spirits business. The group owns the Mendocino Brewing Company in the United States. History
The UB Group was founded by a Scotsman, Thomas Leishman, in 1857. The Group took its initial lessons in manufacturing beer from South India based British breweries. At the age of 22, Vittal Mallya was elected as the company's first Indian director in 1947. After a year, he replaced R G N Price as the chairman of the company.
